St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1890-07-20
LONG WALKING SKIRTS.

A Woman Who Writes a Strong
Philippe Against Those Articles.
Mamie Hatchett Fairbrother, in Jenness-
Miller Magazine.
I am not, as rule, an advocated for
capital punishment; butt never 90 down
the poorly paved street of Western
town, after spring thaw, without feel
ing that if l could only discover the
wretched woman who first originated
and secured the sanction Of fashion to
the long walking skirts now in vogue.
it would afford me genuine satisfaction
to assist in the grim pleasantly OF
stretching her delicate limbs on the in
quis.torial rack, and watching her, by
slow torture, eXplate her crime.
If there is any sight under heaven
where a sense OF the ludicrOuS borders
closest on commiseration, it is to see
crowed of faint and foundering, beS-
battered, bedraggled, miserable women,
plodding their weary way along muddy,
miry, sloppy, dirty streets, dragging
after them enough virgin soil to start
kitchen garden.
Women hate to be laughed at. then
why will they insist upon making
themselves ridiculous? They profess
admiration for art, and go into raptures
over the generous waist of a marble
Venus. Yet they ignore grace. COM
fort, and common sense, and so cralnp
and distort their bodies that they dare
not reSpire freely or indulge III nat
ural, care-free laugh, for~fear of burst
ing their stays. or, worse still, the bone
lined tailor-made waist, which sets off
superb figure" to such advantage, and
makes the happy possessor the admired
and envied of all female beholders.
They denounce anything on the part
of the sterner sex that can be construed
into cruelty to animals; they raise their
tender hands in righteous indignation
at the sufferingS of prosecuted mouse,
and cry shame on the festive school
boy who adds the weight of an empty
can to the rear appendage of canine
martyr.
Yet they have no conjunction for
the needless pain they inf1ict on their
own innocent children, in order that
they may ''look sweet in a pair of
boots two sizes too small, or have i'm
parted to their hair a wavy fiuffIness
that nature failed to supply. While de-
ploring the fate of the prosecuted dog,
they voluntarily make of themselves a
scarcely less absurd spectacle by allow
ing tailors and dressmakers to SO har-
ness and weight them down that there
is no chance for elasticity, either in step
or spirit. They denounce the practices
of the self-torturing pagans. and every
year offer thousands of victims on the
altar of Asmodeus.
Styles. like everything else, can gen.
orally be traced to the Individual vanity
or self purposes of the originator; and
the woman who introduced long walk
ing skirts had. | venture to predict,
more feet than brains, AM to hide
natural deformity was selfish enough to
inflict curse upon the entire sex.
If, when such garments chance to be
out of STYLE, the woman who appears on
the street in a skirt of decent length
happens to have respectable-sized
foot, her enviouS and more SOlidly-
foundationed sisters raise at once cry
of vanity and Immodesty, and attempt
to frighten her back into regulation
martyrdom. Now, / could never see
why this much-abused but useful mem
Der, provided it was covered with neat
boot, was not as much dressed as any
other part of the body, or why mOdesty
should be alarmed at its necessary eX-
hibition.
Long walking skirts are not only
private grief, but a public nuisance.
They should be speedily relegated to
the lumber-room of antiquity. We can
not hope for reform from that popular
moderator of fashion, the dry goods
man, since it is to his interest to sell as
much cloth as possible to the pattern,
also that it should be soon soiled and its
place have to be supplied by another.
Neither can we expect it from tailor OF
modiste. for the same obvious reason.
The wearers themselves must brave the
Initiative, but when will they have the
nerve to proclaim their own emancipa-
Ti0u2