The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1893-02-16
ADour Hoor sKIRTs.
some Timely Thoughts About tho Threa
ened Invasion,

S0lc 1lhcly lnouSHNs AuOul tho 1HEeul-
ened Invasion.
Philadelphia TimeG
It's amusing, isn't it? all this uproar
about the possible hoop skirt, especially
when one considers that every valiant
feminine rebel knows in her secret
heart that when the fashion really
comes she will calmly surrender and
meelily enfold herself in the triumphant
crinolino.
There was much the same sort OF
commotion, in a modified form. you will
remember, 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 dragging
on not too clean American payements?
And don't you just rs distinctly recol.
lect that feeling OF nameless superior
ity which makes obedience to the des-
pots mandate q Joy and pride rs you,
too, swept forth about three weeks
later with but one fear TO mar your sat
isiied vanity that you might not catch
up that eminently fashionable train
with just the proper swing?
An, yes, We all succumbOd. Those
women who prided themselves on devo-
ton to business, to be sure, were the
hardest to bring to proper submission
and they chung obstinately to trainIess,
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 iurtive way in which those
women eyed passing acquaintances,
Juggling viciously Mt the dragging gowns
the while to see ii they noted the igno-
minious defeat.
And that's just the way it will be
with the oncoming hooPskirt. Even
while We solemnly say Never" we
know that we will, with certain reser-
vations.
OF course it would be little too
awful too contemplate the consequences
OF hoopskirt rule among business wo-
men. Think OF tile feminine book
keeper and her hoopskirt climbing the
office stool, and the pretty typewriter
in an overgrown bird cage endeavoring
to squeeze into her limited accommodR-
tions ut the machine would undoubted-
ly cause a panic in tho office. The
agonies OF shoppers have been dwelt
upon at length, but think, my friends,
OF the miseres caused by the shoppers
train, and was it suppressed until Dame
Fashion in her own good time withdrew
it amid prophetic mutterings OF q
greater eccentricity yet to be. Oh, I've
no doubt that the only reason the reign
Of the trailing horror was so short was
because we continually grumbled, even
while submitting, and perhaps, II We
only grumhle enough, the stay oil the
hoopskirt rampant will also be limited,
if indeed it does come, which l don't
say it will. I'm only trying to find a
philosophical standpoint from which
the hideous possibility may be viewed
without dfsquiet.
The tyranncal rulers OF woman's cos
tune are struggling their shoulders and
saying they haven't u thought Of harm,
which OF course we take with grain of
salt and still stand on the defensive, but
as We are grumbling prodigiously, and
as we have a trifle more individual and
independent will than our great grand
mothers had, the terror OF 1880 Is we'll
nigh an impossibility, for general wear
at least As to q stilened skirt, and
and-well, say wire in the hem, why
it wouldn't look so awfully bad, would
it? aud it would be real for summer,
now don't you think SOP and-well-
you wore reeds and a hustle, didn't you ?