The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1851-11-04 00:00:00

THE BLOOMER BALL.

This transatlantic sect—whose professors within the
month have sprung up as thick as blackberries in every
part of the metropolis, and who have even spread their
waves of doctrine as far as Edinburgh—appealing to the
good sense of their hearers by urging on them the morality
infringed by, and the expenditure and physiological evils
involved in, the present style of ladies' dress, and who
have hoisted as their standard of reform an article of
clothing very different from the celebrated " blacksmith's
apron" famed in the annals of Persia—on Wednesday
night gave a grand ball at the Hanover-square Rooms.
Whether this entertainment was intended as a triumphal
orgy for the number of proselytes made, or to act asa lure
to those still holding hack, by showing them that ladies

can dance much more comfortably when unineumbered
with long dresses. we shall not pretend to determine. But
the proselytes did not muster strong, and we suspect that
very many of the thirty or forty present were " Bloomers"
for the night only, and adopted the dress as they would
have put on a masquerade costume for Vauxhall, which,
perhaps, would have been their more fitting arena. They
certainly showed the dress to perfection, for, not being
endued with any over amount of timidity, they did n-
display any of that awkward bashfulness that might have
been expected in assuming the " Bloomer." In the dress
itself there was every description of style. We are scep-
tical enough to doubt whether, under any circumstances,
a large straw hat of the size of a small table is either a
commodious or appropriate headdress for a ball room, or
whether a morning polka does not suggest the idea that it
ought to have been left with other wraps in the hall. But
there were some who were really dressed very nicely—their
clothes fitted beautifully, and ladies may depend that as
much art is required in cutting out " the Bloomers" as in
masculine trousers, and that till experienced milliners
take the affair in hand the converts to the new dress will
never look presentable. As an instance of the mal-
adaptation of the dress to the occasion, one of the party
was dressed exactly in the manner of the young lady de-
picted on the " Bloomer Polka," which may be seen in
every music shop window. We beg her pardon, she had
no parasol, hut we are bound to state that to make up for
this omission she had a hat with an extra six inches of
brim. The men assembled by hundreds, including most
of the officers of the Guards now in town, and outside the
doors an extremely inquisitive mob collected in great force
to run after every every cab and shout out " Bloomer."
From the gallery, between the dances, the large concert-
room appeared filled by a dense mass of men, through
which here and there might be discerned something sur-
mounted with a nodding plume, marking the place where
a " Bloomer" was trying to get through the crowd.
During the dances the lookers-on formed a ring four or
five deep, or stood upon the benches round the room, con-
tracting the space for the dancers to the narrowest possible
limits, and threatening to take away that little, till one or
two couple, more adventurous than the rest, dashed
through the ring like a steamer charging a field of ice,
and made an opening. It would be uufair to saddle the
" Bloomers" will all the sins committed at their ball ' • but
if it•is to be taken as a specimen of their manners and cus-
toms, every one we are sure would exclaim, " We'll have
none of them." There is one thing they do not do—they
do not observe the old proverb, "Practise what you
preach." Having attended many of their lectures, we can
most unhesitatingly state that the polka was denounced in
the most emphatic te••ms as an indelicate and improper
dance. It was brought in as an instance of one of the
immodest things the fashionable world tolerated, al-
though the same fashion forbad them to shorten their
petticoats. After having been set down in this style, who
would hare expected to see it at a "Bloomer" ball. Every
accession to the fair sex, when there were so few, was of
course of great value, but that is no reason why they
should have been cheered and crowded round on their en-
trance to the hinderance of the dancing or anything else.
Supper may be a very exhilarating thing, but that does not
excuse a battle royal in the supper room with pieces of
bread and orange and jelly. In conclusion, we would say
a " Bloomer" ball may be a very good thing, hut we
would rather see less men and more ladies, and have them
better behaved.—Times.

CONVICTION OF A GANG OF THIEVES AND RECEIVERS.
—A wholesale system of robbery of tradesmen by their
errand boys and porters having been discovered by the
Bath police, the pa'ties implicated were tried at the quar-
ter sessions for that city, just concluded, before D. Jar-
dine Esq., recorder. There were no less than ten of the
gang indicted together, and eight of the ten were con-
victed and sentenced to transportation for ten years.