Sacramento daily record-union., 1888-09-01
DRESS REFORM.
FIVE THOUSAND WOMEN WHO
WEAR DIVIDED PETTICOATS.
Dress Climbs Sprouting Like Mush.
rooms-Gowns Which Annie Jen-
ness Miller is Wearing.
fN. Y. Cor. St. Louis Globe.pemocr.,

ASoS NnlI1CF Is w caring.
IN. Y. Cor. st. Louis Globe Democrat
Annie Jenness Miller, the latest of the
dress reformers, is watching for the ship
of good sense to come in with the millen-
mum on board, down on the Maine coast
While pretty things in silk and lace vet
lay bout her chamber in process of pack
ing, asked her how the crusade came on.
She said: There is ten times the in
terest in hygienic dress now which found
a year ago, especially in the West"
Mrs. Miller has taken up her abode
permanently in New York She would be
a pretty woman dressed anyhow; clothed
according to her particular how she is
beautiful. While she sits you say to your
self here is woman who is well when
she walks you know she is buoyantly well
If she runs up stairs you do not even ask
yourself why she does not stop, put her
hand over her heart and palpitate
ORGANIZED.
Do you know" Mrs Miller began,
NAelb IL a GdI VI Two we snail nave
every State in the Union a body of women
as compact and well organized as the w.
&. 7. T., wearing healthful clothing and
preaching it to others? Women are be-
ginning, of course separately, but they are
beginning also in clubs. Dress clubs are
forming all over the country. Before
Christmas there will be, | hope, from 100
to $50 of them. Already Kansas has a
dozen, Michigan has sseight or ten, Califor-
MIA has four, Colorado has two, Washing
ton Territory has three or four, Indian
apolis has one, and great many others are
waiting for me to organize them.
"The largest dress club, the one most
thoroughly organized and the first in
working order, IS the Chicago club, which
Is only TWO or three months old, but has
more than 200 members. 1t has adopted
a constitution and bylaws, annexed itself
as an auxiliary to the Chicago Woman's
Club, hired comfortable headquarters and
arranged for weekly meetings with a regu-
lar course Of study in physical science.
Every member pledges herself to wear
only hygienic clothing; nothing in the
nature OF uniform, you understand, but
such garments as commend themselves to
health, comfort and the understanding. To
supply themselves and to convert others
they viii open salesrooms for reformed
underwear, and a dressmaking establish
ment where women can order gowns. Some
of the best-known women of Chicago are
in the movement, and the energy of the
club Is astonishing. The other clubs
formed are many of them social organiza-
tionS simply, without any aggressive plan
of campaign, but the Chicago club will be
a model for other cities. When we have
800 such organizations carrying dress i'm
provement into everyday life then sensible
dress won't look so chimerical."
DRESS IMPROVEMENT.
''Do you look for any great or sudden
revolution ?''
mo; the hope of the improvement lies
in the growing up of the younger women
Wherever | go women meet me who say:
l have worn corsets almost from babyhood
[ could never take them off but my little
girls shall never put them on The Ober-
lin College girls wrote to me some little
time ago asking if | would help them de-
sign a college gown which all the girl
students could wear"
GLOW many women have actually adopt
ed dress reform clothingW
"If you mean how many women are to-
day wearing divided skirts under their
gowns and no petticoats, there are several
thousands. Somebody said recently that
only twenty women in the country wore
leglettes. Now l have reason to know with
certainty that 5000 do. 1t Is no long
time since the most richly dressed woman
at grand dinner, woman whose point
lace draperies were worth hundreds of dol
lars turned to me and whispered: 4 am
in a s.ate of bliss, for the leglettes | have
on this minute are perfection. No more
petticoats for me-"
evil you tell me how you would dress
woman TO keep her or make her well ?'
81 would have no bandage whatever
about her waist. The first garment she
put on should be the prettiest knitted silk
or gauziest gOssameT combination suit she
chose TO don. Over this or next the skin
if she wore no fannels or substitutes fol
fannels in summer should come the
chemilette, which is chemise and drawer.
in one, and which can be high-necked Oh
low-necked, Of Gotten or silk, plain or EN-
broidered, as any woman faneies." AnC
Mrs. Miller opened bureau drawer anC
took out something in pale-blue surah
with fairy-like stitchings and edging o
lace flmy enough to make the lover o
such like daintiness pine with envy.
LEGLETTES.
"Outside of this come the leglettes
which are substitutes for petticoats, anC
which are made plain, of silk or wool, fol
winter For summer the fuller Turkish
leglettes or divided skirts, of muslin o.
surah or silk pongee, look very much like
petticoats when worn, but are lighter anC
give one so much more freedom of move
ment that in case of accident the legletteC
woman can extricate herself from dange
much more quickly than she of the drag
ging skirts" More things in surah wer