St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1889-02-13
WELL FORMED WOMEN
The Champion Of Female
Dress Reform Gives Valu-
able Points.
&
A Practical Illustration of
the Methods to Be
Pursued.
Mrs. Jenness Miller Addresses
Her Sex in Executive
Session. vi
Description of Some Of the
Toilettes Worn by a
Crusader. a

UiidG oil the NUiuCI VIII dSScHlUtCu db
the Newmarket yesterday afternoon
were prepared to have their breath
taken away with the first sight of her.
and were not little surprised to find
themselves still breathing normally
when woman rather above the aver
age height, with nice-lo0klng face,
wearing gown that was a trifie sug-
gestive of that mild feminine hOrr0r--a
woman with ideaS-WaS introduced by
Mrs. E. M. S. Marble, of Minneapolis, as
Mrs. Annie JenneS Miller. She advanced
to the front of the stage and began talk
ing as il her piece had been carefully
learned. Her gown was directoire
coat Of black velvet brOcaded with.
white. over petticoat of black satin.
From her waist up she looked like
other women, though her proportions
were calculated to make the eorSetS of
the average woman feel
WEAK IN THE STRINGS.
But it was from the waist down. that
attention was principally directed, and
one sighed as over the shattered frag-
ments of fond hope to see that around
the bottOm of her skirt she was undenia-
bly, etacky." Her dress was uncertain
in the line it described above what was
certainly an expanse of feet, and be-
tween the two the bottom of her skirt
and her feet-there was an indescriba-
BILE something that was within degree
of being awful in its mystery.
She began talking about Eve and
law, but one couldn't get ones thoughts
off the mystery. 1t was deepening, it
more Of it,. The horrible suspicion of
its nature became stronger. 1t was, it
surely waS-coming off. She was speak
ing of Women's slayiSh obedience to GUS
tom. Perhaps it was not coming Off:
perhaps it was only a spectacular effect
She had designed to illustrate her
supremacy to the law of CUSTOM. She
got it under her feet, and more of it re-
IentleSSly erawled down. She went on
to speak of the Inconsistency of Womams
modesty; she advocated the suppression
OF the word ''limb," as applied to the
lower extremities. She said that il
there was anything so awful III "a
Woman's having legs the Lord would
never have given them to her, and then,
concluding that if there a.
WASN'T ANYTHING AWFUL -
in Annie Jenness Miller having leg
Iettes, she needn't be ashamed of them.
she stepped out of the mystery, quickly
picked it up, tossed it Oh a chair back
of her and continued talking as if 10th
had happened. During her entire per-
Torrance she advanced no more con-
vincing argument than this of the SD
periority of her reformed ideas over eX-
listing ones. No woman, not even Mrs.
Miller, could have risen calmly above
the unexpected appearance of mys-
terry OF Starched white linen and lace.
- 1tb1 faof,Irac f,fs ri race rpforpa ara IA
mitiar to every one iWho-reatlS the daily
papers. As Mrs. Miller proceeded with
the discussion of them she grew on her
audience. Her face. that had been
simply nice-looking at first, at the end
OF half an hour one would have sworn
was beautiful, and there was something
so divinely easy in her carriage before
long every woman who had believed
herself perfectly comfortable and we'll
formed began to feel as if she
would like to let out reef in her cor
sets and go in for physical culture. The
enviable dress reformer, or dress i'm
proven, as Mrs. Miller prefers to be
called, stated the objects of dress to be
physical comfort and harmony, and to
attain this object insisted that radical
change must take place in feminine at
tire. She disciaimed all desire to appro-
pirate mems attire, which she crush
ingly 'profiounceS bad enough to make
THE HANDSoMEsT LOOK UGLY.
but she spoke with contempt of the
hustle. which she piously hoped no
woman Is now guilty of 'wearing, since it
is no longer toI Grated at Paris, and de-
clared war on that dearest of all
woman's crosses = the corset. She
showed her e0rseted audience that the
reason they are Obliged to resort
to any of the familiar ''femi-
nine, building materials" is because
not one woman in 100, though she may
have sense enough to walk in out Of the
rain, knows. enough to stand up. To
illustrate their general ignorance of
how to manage the muscles of the body,
she caricatured the common carriage of
women, until every tailor-made creature
before her felt more OIL less like comic
valentine. Mrs. Miller stated that a
man put in Woman'S attire in ten years
would be a glihbering idiot Or corpse,
and, with mild righteousness, she sug-
gested eaging man and trying the eX-
pertinent OH him to prove the truth OF
her, assertion.
The dress she recommends and wears
herself consists of union suit of wool,
a chemilette of Surah satin or pongee
silk, that is a garment combining in one
the conventional chemiSe and drawers,
and surah silk
DIVIDED SKIRT OR 'LEGLETTES." D..
Mrs. Miller herself objects to- the
term of the last garment, but she says
in defense of its selection that it is all
she could find having any reference to
legs that had not already been appro-
priated by man. and she declines
to encroach in the least upon his
rights. She said that ''skirtlet''
was suggested to her, but she
wuuld:pot have so much as a hint of a.,
petteoat about the garment, for she.
considers a petticoat relic of barbar-
ism. After calling attention to the dis
tinctive features of the gown she wore,
she left the stage to- change it for an
other, saying before she went that the.
order of toilet affairs is changed in her
household. and that instead of her hqs-
band growing because she is so long at
her toilet since she. has adopted the re-
form, she invariably says to him in the
morning, "You get up now, dear, and
get partially dressed and shaved SO that
/ shan't have to wait for you." :.
In less time than the eenventionally
CARRIED woman could get out of ono
gown, Mrs. Miller was back on the
stage, wearing an exquisite creation of
shrimp-pink wool and apple-green
China silk. Her gowns are all made on
a s'dress-form foundatien"-a modified
princess garment of silk OF percaline.
The foundation of this particular one is
faced with green silk and bordered
with a band of Grecian embroidery in
gold braid. Graceful draperies of the
pink cloth are
SHIRRED To THE BOTTOM
of an. Empire eorsage. The neck is
'sV"-shaped, and the sleeves to the ]
elbow Of pulled silk are finished with a
inspection with the graceful lack of
self-conseieusness wax figure in
show window exhibits her wonderfully !