The Monitor. [volume] (Woodstown, N.J.) 1884-1892, 1890-01-10
w. C. 7.

1
it was at the noon hour, when all classes
of people were on their way to dinner.
gradually we noticed that we were being
encircled. 4 wall of men and boys at last
shut III in, so that to 70 on or to go back
was impossible. There we stood.
The crowd was a good natured one.
They laughed at us. They made
faces at us. They said impertinent
things, and they would not let us out. Ev-
cry moment brought added numbers, who
crowd. Among them was an acquaintance
of ours, who, when he saw us, took in the
| situation at once. He wen for a police
man and a carriage, and we escaped with
only p little rough treatment at last.
At another time, when a clergyman who
was to speak for the Nantucket Lyceum
failed, | was invited to take his place.
When Mrs. Nathaniel Barney escorted me
to the platform, the audience. who expect
ed a dignified clergyman, but saw instead
a young woman in a bloomer costume,
burst into roars of laughter. But Mrs.
Barney was a member of the Society of
Friends, a woman we'll known and highly
esteemed, with Il fine social position and
much wealth. In the ~quietest manner
she gave me a seat; and at the proper time
introduced NE. To the credit of the audi
and evidently soon became forgetful of the
dress. When I was in Louisville, Ky, a
negro woman at the public pump put her
hands on her hips awaiting my approachs
and asked: "Be You ono of them theatre
women" In all directions, and all the
time, those who wore the bloomer costume
were the observed of all observers, and
were looked upon with unlriendly eyes.
Was it any wonder that, after three years
of petty crucifxion, they left it off,
with the feeling that the large freedom
they gained for their feet bore no
comparison to the bondage that beset their
spirits: Those Who wore the bloomer cos
tune put it on in the hope that dress at
once comfortable and useful, in which You
could walk up stairs and not step on your
clothes, and down stairs and not be step
ped on. a dress which vas still clean after the
longest walk in mud and slush, with no
endless yards of cloth to brush, would COM
mend itself. But one by one those who
had adopted it abandoned it. Mrs. Eliza
beth Smith Miller wore it much longer
than any of the others. Her father, Ger
rift Smith, thought that a principle was
involved, that the health OF women was be-
ing ruined by their dress, and thatto make
the new costume acceptable it must be seen.
Mrs. Miller, who had a fine face and figure,
wore it to better advantage than any of the
others. For her fathers sake she kept it
on. But by little and little her skirts
heightened, until at last they were NJ long
err noticeably different from those of other
women.
The bloomer dress is nov only a name
and a memory. But Mrs. Annie Jenness
Miller has com with 'artistic" dress re-
form. and she is greeted with smiles and a
welcome, as she should be. She has taken
the first step toward the improvement of
the dress of women. But, later, some NO.
man who is to come after Mrs. Jenness
MILLER will assuredly unfetter the feet Of
women, and save them from dragging
skirts, wet ankles, and much consequent
ill-health. Lucy Stone, IN Boston Globe.