The herald., 1893-09-20
QUEER aAr4ine SUITS FOR GIRLS.
They Were Mems Everyday Clothes, and
the Spectators Couldn,t stand II.


They Were Mems Everyday Clothes. and
the Spectators Couldn't Stand 1t.
Ina cozy cottage by the beach at Lake
Bluff there dweus this summer q lot OF
girls. They are not all real rosy faced
girls, especially when they came there,
for most of them leave the shop and the
Office only for the two or three weeks
that they can get for a vacation at the
Chicago working girls home cottage.
But they are clever girls. Their wits
have been sharpened by the grind of
work. Their sports are light, especially
when reveling in an outing. If they
came with pale cheeks. they are quite apt
to go back to the crowded city with pink
ones. And this largely comes about,
they say, by tumbling in the invigorating
waves Of Lake Michigan, which roll
within sight and hearing.
Now, bathing suit is all right, pro-
vided girl has got one. But it costs
money. Fathers and big and little broth
ers are very cheap, though, and very
often it is great fun for big and little
girls to dress up, even Just for home en-
joy1nent, in the coats and trousers of
their fathers and brothers. So it oc-
CURED to some of these innocent fun
loving girls that such untrammeling at
tire would be jolly bathing suit Fun
is no sooner proposed than it is accom-
plished, and when achattering company
of merry girls gathered at the Mime
tonka bathing house yesterday, with sus-
picious looking bundles under their arms,
nobody but the girls knew what was go-
ing to happen.
But they found out all of sudden
when almost 100 graceful figures clad in
coats and trousers ran splashing into the
water from the bathhouse. The coats
and trousers were none of your dress re-
form makeshifts, but the real kind that
fathers and brothers or some kind friend
of the doughty wearers had dedicated to
this gentle immersion While these
laughing mermaids felt nothing worse
than the chills of Lake Michigan's s sturdy
temperature to cool their enthusiasm,
horror ran hot in the veins of some well
meaning elderly persons of short memo
ries and precise opinions who live in the
neighboring cottages. They were shock
ed. Il was awful. 1t must be stopped.
So they ran to the agent of the boat
house, and he ran to the waters edge.
Ladies, he said, "this will not do"
"What'll never dor" from the bathers.
"Why--this-of course--you mustn't
think mo rude, but refer to these cos
tunes"
Never mind the costumes" replied
the leader. ''NNc have paid for our bath
house, and we'll wear what we please.
So there, now"
There was a chorus of approvals just
as big wave came and filled open
mouths with water, which drove out the
bottled up shrieks of mingled delight at
the bath and Indignation at the inter
ruption. The lonesome man gracefully
retired, Then some of the other bathers,
solemn and staid, thought it was awful
that such goings on be allowed, and they
began to withdraw unto themselves on
the beach. The confabs grew serious, and
the agent was called. 1t looked like
break in business patronage, and he or
dered the girls to leave the beach under
penalty of losing their bathhouse.
Z They did. One by one they staidly
walked in single file and bcdraggied coats
and trousers and sober faces, aud disap-
peared from view. s'The mean things!'
they all said, Chicago Cor, Minneapolis
l. y. Q f~I q. .nar Ia .HNI