The herald., 1893-02-05
CALLED ON TO OBJECT.
A Woman a SKIS Hor Sex to Sit Down {
the HooD Skirt.


A Woman a skis Her Sex to Sit Down on
the Hoop Skirt.
"Bee King" writes to the HERALD the
following strong protest against the
hoopskirts. AS the writer is woman
she ought to know whereof she writes:
May l ask place in your paper for
the following, as it is the frat time I
have made request of the kind. But
the subject is one 30 important to me
and to my sex, and 1 may add to hu-
manity in general, that feel as though I
cannot refrain from expressing my views.
as we'll as those of most women, could
we but hear them speak. The eubis ct
is the wearing of hoops, as it has become
a matter of fact that we are to have this
outrageous and silly fashion thrust upon
US. Hoops came into use when l was a
young girl, and remember well with
what admiring eyes gazed upon what
to me then was the very perfection OF
all that was grand and elegant in style,
and the disappointment l felt when in
formed that was too young to don
them. But finally grew into them.
My experience with them covers a
period of several years, and my objec-
tions to them would fill volume, and
exhaust every derogatory adjective in
Webster's dictionary. But l will con-
fine myself to few of these objections.
In the first place, they are vulgar. A
lady who wears them cannot enter q car
or conveyance of any kind, or 60 up and
down stairways on the street without
exposing her feet and limbs and under
wear, to the amusement of street loafers,
or the chagrin and disgust of pure
minded and honorable men, not to
speak of her own modification,
Next, they are unhealthy, because no
woman can keep her limbs warm with
her clothes distended from them, unless
she wears under the hoops extra skirts.
Theae with what she is compelled to
wear over them to keep in place-ballast
them as it were-are too heavy and over
burden her: besides they require much
wider skirts, and full ruffies follow
them into fashion.
Then they are dangerous, extremely
dangerous. Ladies have been thrown
down on the streets by the hoop catch
ing nm some obstruction not seen, or by
the heel of their shoe, and in many in
stances been crippled for life, and even
death has resulted from such accidents
occurring in getting off or on railroad
cars, or descending etairs. People in
crowds become entangled in thoee worn
by others, and it is often delicate op-
GRAFTON to extricate the victim, especial
ly if it be gentleman. Then they are
not cleanly. Their motion constantly
creates rising of dust and all loose par
tiolon in tho air, which nottlo on tiIu uu-
derclothing. They are expensive. For
the amount and value of the material
used in their makeup there is
nothing women wear which costs go
much in proportion. They are constantly
changing shape and style, are easily
ruined, hard to keep in order, and
nuisance to the wearer. They do not
contribute in any way to the health,
comfort, or gracefulness OF womankind,
but, on the other hand, they are ugly,
abominable, monstrous. For these
reasons and others which space forbids
to name, 1 1enounce them, and here
and now register VOW that if every
other woman in America wears them 1
never will. The Grecian bend, the pull
back, the immense hustle, the banged
hair and the dirty etreet-sweeping trail,
that frequently disgusts us now on the
streets, all have had their day and their
votaries, and they were all eschewed by
dignifed and womanly women. But
they all sink into insignifcance beside
the hoop skirt which foreign fashion
makers are seeking to impose on the
grand and progressive American women
in the latter days of the nineteenth cen
tury; and now appeal to the women OF
California to rise and object. The
younger ladies will probably want to
try the experiment, as 1 did, and per-
hap5 will denounce me and this ar
ticle as cranky. And the ultra fash
ionable woman will of course want them,
as to be out of style with her is to be
miserable. But it is to the dignified,
sensible, honorable, intellectual and
moral women speak. Those who have
been and are yet identified with the
splendid charities of this young city,
and who are alive to everything that
benefits mankiud-teachers Temperance
women, church women, woman suffrage
women, lady physicians, working wom-
en-all who live upon plane higher
than the pleasures of adopting foolish
fashions, exert your influence against
them, and we will soon demonstrate
that California leads in her own fash
ions, as she does in almost everything
else. Let the women discuss this sub
ject at the Friday Morning club, at the
women's parliament, at every public
meeting held in the interests of women,
and in private, "where two or three are
gathered together" Let us chow the
men that we can and will defy the de-
crees of fashion, and give them no cause
to deride us longer. There never was
time in my knowledge when women's
clothing was so comfortable, simple and
easily and inexpensively made as for the
past year, and why not let well enough
alone? Speak up, sisters, and stand by
what you cay.
Angostura Bitters says a long time sufferers
f--r s,,1s