Sunbury American. [volume] (Sunbury, Pa.) 1848-1879, 1851-09-13
THE BLooMER DRESS.
A woMAN's REPLY TO MRS. swrssnELM

|
New York paper in reply TO Mrs. Swiss
helms objections TO the Boomer dress
Mrs. Swisshelm occupies two columns Of
her last paper ON the short dress. She con-
demns il in toto. She SAYS she has tried it
and il is beset with difficulties all over, and
if adopted, will doom her to perpetual blush
| es. She bushes now to see woman in it,
and she bushes TO hear a woman Of sense
| advocate il and yet she is beseged on all
| sides with entrealies 10 adopt the new cos
tune. Now will you permit me, through
| your columns, 10 beg the friends of the shoIt
skirts, TO lei Mrs. Swi<shelm alone in her
drapery. Ii she finds the long dress conve-
nieut, thinks it beautiful, and "a necessary
aprendage to womanhood," pray lei her
wear il il is downright tyranny 10 attempt
to force her out of it, But Mrs. S. can
speak for herself only They are many
other women who find the long dress very
thensome aud indecent. In regard 10 the
| short dress, the experience of Mrs. ). is
worth Just as much as and no more than tha,
of any other individual. After wearing il
| few times, she threw it aside convinced
that il was mistake, (she made the mis-
take in cutting il, no doub,) We have wo-
men in this State, who have worn the dress
three or four years, and some many
months, aud all who have given it fair
trial and altered their garments until they
felt perfectly casv, pronounce it a most com
| Portable dress, and grea! improvement on
the old style. All the objections made by
Mrs. S. can be easily obviated, except that
of her personal modesly, which would make
her wish herself away when a woman in
skirts should chance 10 pick up n thimbe or
pluck flower, and thus expose her under
skirts, and the shadow of pair of legs snca-
sed in trousers. On such occason we might
recommend her to try her own panacea for
all excessive modesiy, that which she often
prescribes for those who are easily put 10
| the blush, shocked or horrified-viZ the
smelling bottle. A man in round about
would no doubt throw her into spasm.-
But what would she do on beholiing lady
dressed according 10 her fashion, with two
thin skirts aud no bifurcated garments, going
up aud down n steep hill or pair Of stairs or
a very windy day =? There can be no ques-
ton of the superiority of the new costume,
in all respects, for all times and places, over
the one recommended by the editor Of "1ho
Tisiior but we all know that the comfort of
any garment depends mnch on the fit We
have no war TO wage against long peliicoats.
We say, let all the men and women who
| like them wear them, and let us who like
the shoIt dress wear il. 'lnnsmuch as the
great Father made the form very nicely" !
see no reason for being so shocked at the
sight Of IT, II seems TO me that one might
contemplate "A pair of legs in trousers with
as much calmness as a pair of bare arms or
shoulders. Our most fashionable men and
women will cooly look al the female form
| on canvass, or in marble, without any dra-
perry, and it is the sheerest afeclation that
they are so shocked al the bare idea that a
woman has legs. Now, in my opinion, a
leg is a leg, whether on man or on a wo-
man, and if Mrs Swisshem cannot endure
the sight of a womau's leg in pants, advise
all men who seek her presence hereafter 10
her, unless their coat tails reach the floor,
but back ont aS from the presence Of royal
ty. Bless me how The modes,y of Mrs s.
wonld be tortured in tour round the world.
Il -, l,,a ~
rial Empire and the domains of the Grand
Mogul, for fear of meeting woman in
pants and cut through Holland, Germany,
France, Switzerland, Italy, &c, for fear of
! meeting snme pretty peasant grl with legs.
Even in Great Britain she would find no re-
pose, for in Scotland the bare legs of the
! Highland soldiers wonld meet her eve AT
every iurn. Coming back 10 this continent,
! To- behold in South America the women
ride on horseback as men do, legs separately
encased and even here, alas in this mo-
! del Repnbic, we have revealed the fact
| that woman is forked animal, and is not,
as she seems 10 be, ''chnrn upon casiorsn
| Mrs. s. bIames us for all newspaper twad-
die on The new costume, and regrets that
women Of intelligence should turn aside
from the great questions of reform TO get up
douehy campaign on peiicoats Now
she is mistaken in saying that we who have
donned the shoit dress have sci all "Chrs.
tendon in fzz.n Is il not those rather
who have commented upon our aci-ihose
who have questioned our right TO dress as
we please We grew Tired Of the patterns
of French milliners aud American apes .
there was Too much misery entailed by The
one and too mach tail TO be dragged by the
other SO we halted in the grand fight BY
the way, bul for momentJ merely 10 un-
hook our dresses, op off superfluities, and
take long breath, that we might work on
with more freedom and ease. MIR. S. in.
stead Of moving on with the main army TO
battle the enemy, turned round to look at
wonder at and scold al us and our legs. She
says thai neither Calvin Luther, Meanc-
ihou, Father Matthew, John b. Cough, nor