, 1891-08-08
DRESS REFORM.
Skirts, Corsets, Bustles and
High Heels Must Go.
The Movement Already Begun
in Chautauqua.
A Chicago Lady the Leader
of the Crusade.

CHAUTAUoUA, Aug. "A great dress
reform movement is about to be in
augurated in the United States. The
crusade against the prevailing fashions,
which was begun at Chautaudua about a
week ago, was the first intimation OF what
was coming, but today the secret leaked
out, and it shows the women reformers
ere on the warpath and really mean bust
ness. The great trouble up to the pres
ent time with the women has been to get
a leader, a sort of Martin Luther. who
could work a great reformation in the
fashion world. This leader has been
found in the person of Mrs. Frank Stuart
Parker of Chicago, who SO bravely nailed
her dress reform thesis to the gates of
Chautauqua about a week ago and has
since that time been receiving delegations
of women from all over the country in her
suite OF rooms here, and has defended her
position in a way that has attracted the
widest attention.
On May 30, 1891, the general officers
of the National Council OF Women held
an important meeting IN Indianapolis and
passed a resolution that a crusade should
be waged as soon as possible against the
prevailing style OF dress among women.
The thing aimed at was to secure the
adoption OF a more comfortable and SEN
sihle form OF dress for women engaging
in business avocations. This was to be
the beginning of the emancipation of
women from skirts. carriers, c%orsets, high
heels. high collars-in fact. from every
thing that handicsps them from Compel
ing with men in the various professions
and occupations. The women say that
c%orsets, bustles and skirts must be abol.
ished; hence they nave just selected as a
central committee the following promi-
nent women: Mrs. Frank Stuart Parker
of Chicago, Mrs. Frances Il. Russell of
St. Paul, Annie Jenness Miller OF New
York, Elizabeth Stuart Phelps Ward,
Anna G. Bracket, DR.. Mary Putnam
jacob. Miss Grace Dodge and Margaret
Sangster.
Chautauqua seems to have been hit
upon as the place in which to %inaugurate
the movement. A secret meeting was
held here a week ago, and several men
who steathily crept in to get the latest in
t~elIgence on the subject we're summarily
bounced" The new reform was then
unfolded by Mrs. Parker. This lady is
one of the most charming of persons, and
is the wife of Col. Francis Parker, the
principal of the Chautauqua teachers re-
treat and president of the Cook county
normal school in Chicago. She is an au-
thor, lecturer, and elocutionist; is very
pretty, with classic features and express
i've eyes. and is a most engaging CONVEX
sationalist. She was a professor some
years ago in the Boston School Of OratOry.
The new reform touches almost every
article of women's apparel. Before Civ
ing the details of the new system it should
be said that Chautauqua has four styles of
dress, namely, the mo skirt" the ''old
skirt the divided skirt" and the
apology for a skirt" Tor trouserette). the
last named being worn by the gymnasium
girls. The radical reformers go in for a
slight modification Of actresses tights,
while others are less extreme, preferring
some improvement on the divided skirt,
which, they say. is too roomY, while the
tights are not roomy enough. The new
crusade Is very sweeping, and the curious
thing about it all is that Miss Frances
Willard hiss wheeled the whole National
Temperance Union into line 10 support of
the movement. In her very bright ad-
dress here on Saturday entitled "A White
Life for Two" she made some very strik-
ing and suggestive remarks.
When we heard what Mrs Parker had
been saying to the Chautauqua ladies
about dress reform, we gave three cheers
for her, said the great Temperance apos-
tie, Miss Willard. and she followed this
up by some startling statements. This
death line." said she, drawing In the air
with her finger the outline of a woman's
waist squeezed into the shape of an hour
glass; call it the death limo" and here
her voice became strong and resonant. her
gestures animated and her eyes flashing.
This line has filed more graves than
whisky" And the great audience in the
amDhitheatre applauded her to the echo.
She then told the story of the mandar-
ms wife, who, when some Americans ex-
pressed horror because she pinched her
foot exclaimed: We pinch the foot, but
you pinch the lIte.'
The reformers will endeayor BY photo
graphs, statues aud lectures from promi-
mem artists, to change the present idea of
proportion in the human figure. They
recommend that each woman supply her
self with a good photograph of the Venus
of Milo. They also suggest the study of
such figures as the Venus Genetrix, Juno,
the flying Victory, Amazon. Thorwold-
sens Eve, Renters Queen Louise of Prus-
STA coming down the stair, and the as
cending figure called the'Fatps" by Sher-
MANN fact, a study Of all the most
approved statues, in order to get the fe-
male eye accustomed as the artists eyes
are to the right position. The refOrmers
will try to make American women under
stand that barbarians in every age, with
their limited ideas of real beauty, have
deformed the body in various wavs-the
Flathead Indians, who endeayor to
change the shape of the head; the tat
tooing OF various artistic designs upon the
human body; the sayaRes who put rings
through their noses and sticks through
the outer rim Of their cars; those who
hang heavy pieces of wood or ivory on the
lower lip, cut off the eyebrows, slit the
~nostrils aud file or blacken the teeth, the
Chinese, who deform the foot or permit
the finger nails to grow to the length of a
yard; shaving the head or training the
hair into grotssque forms, and last, hut
not least, the browning dcformity OF the
compression of the waist; the s~o-called
civilized nations beng the only nations as