St. Paul daily globe., 1893-02-18

Next to knowing all about everything
the best is knowing, that is in the
sense of thoroughly understanding,
yOnr subject, and that is the position
a woman who writes for the Philadel-
phta Times occupies in this pleas
antly cynical bit about the cry-betore-
your-hurt lament that is going up
about hoops, the Il won't neither" at
titude that some women have assumed.
before they have been asked to wear the
Objectionable cages.
Its amusing, isn't it? all this uproar
about the possible hoop skirt, especially
when one considers that every valiant
feminine rehel knows in her secret
heart that when the fashion really
comes she will calmly surrender and
meekly enfold herself in the triumph
ant crnoline.
There was much the same sort of COM
motion, in modified form, you will re
member, before the advent of the train.
Don't you very distinctly recall lifting
your ariStocratic eyebrows in mute but
emphatic ScOrn as you saw your dearest
friend Just returned from Europe sweep
forth with quite three inches of dainty
Partisan frock dl@gging on not too
clean American pavementS? And don't
you just as distinctly recOllect that feel
ing of nameleSS superiority which
makes obedience 10 the deSpOts man
date JOY and pride as you too swept
forth about three weeks later with but
one fear to mar your satisfied vanity
that you might not catch up that emf
nently fashionable train with
Just the Proper SWing2
All, yes, we all succumbed. Those
women who prided themselves OH de-
votion TO business, to be sure, were the
hardest to bring to a proper submission,
and they clung obstinately to tralnleSS,
everyday dreSSeS-We do preserve some
sense of fitness, you knOW-but their
go-to-meeting gowns, well, "touched,"
and it was really too funny to see the
furtive way in which those women eyed
passing acquaintanceS, tugging vicio US
~ at the dragging gowns the while to
see ii they noted the ignominiouS de-
feat.
And that's just the way it will be with
the OncOming hoop skirt. Even while
we solemnly say "Nevern' we know
that we will, with certain reservations.
OF course it would be little too aW-
full to contemplate the consequences OF
hoop-skirt rule among business women.
Think of the feminine bOOkheeper and
her hoop-skirt climbing the office stool,
and the pretty typewriter i'll all over
grown bird cage tndeavorlng to squeeze
into her limited accommodations at the
machine would undoubtedly cause
pauic in the Office. The agOnieS OF
shoppers have been dWelt upon at
length, but think. my friends, of the
miSerieS caused by the shoppers train,
and was it suppressed until Dame
Fashion III her own good time withdrew
it amid phophetic mutterings of
Greater Eccentricity Vet to He.
Oh, PVe no doubt that the only reason
the reign of the trailing horror was short
was because we continually grumDled,
even while submitting. ana perhaps, II
we only grumUle enough, the stay OF
the hoop skirt rampant will also be lin
tied if, indeed. it does come, which L
don't say it will. Pm only trying to
find a philosophical standpoint from
which the hideOuS possibility may be
viewed without diSquiet.
The tyrannical rulers of woman'S
costume are struggling their shoulders
and saying they haven't thought OF
harm, which, Of course, we take with
grain of salt and still stand Oh the de-
tensive, but as we are grumbllng pro-
digiOusly, and as we have tritie more
individual and independent Will than
our Observation-Disclosures had, the terror
of 1880 is well nigh an impussiDiity. for
general wear at least. AS to a Stitfened
skir!, and-and-well. say wire in the
hem, why it wouldn't look so awfully
bad, would it? and it would be real cool
for summer, now don't you think so?
and-well-you wore reeds and hustle,
didn't you?