The evening world., 1894-05-10
THEY WON'T WEAR THEM.
Why Women Continue to Cling to
Long skirts.

Every once in n while we don't hear
anything about dress reform. Such n
lull In the strife is the present time. says
Philadelphia Press writer, when no
conventions are converting. no honorable
bodies being petitioned. no lecturers on
the warrath, Without the slightest de-
sire to myself enter that pnth nor dis
turb the slumbrous embrace of the lion
and the lamb. It seems to me an advan-
tageous occasion for confronting cold
facts--facts connected with the divided or
abbreviated skirts. bloomers. &C, which
women won't and don't adopt. For OF all
unavailing war cries Down with the
skirt" falls apparently on the deafest of
ears: the insidious Turkish trousers and
the daring knickerbocker remain the
rarest curlosities and women cling, un-
convinced, to long skirts. or the skirts
cling to them, "a you please.
The only substantial reason why they
won't wear them Is because they
wont" Al others sink into subordinn-
has once made M her mind. mules. grn-
ven images, Crowbars ana other symbols
or infeXibllity retire from the field
After seasons Of preaching and teaching
and persuasion, what perccptiblc head
, way has the skirt reform movement
made? None. Nor is 1t tyrant man
who focbids the onward sweep OF prog
would cheerfully concede-he would have
to concede-to any eccentricity OF cos
tunes the ingenious sex might devise
I. but the face-evident fact is that enough
women do not demand change and
the small minority who are left have the
privilege OF dress ng as they please, al
though denied that OF making their
stubborn and stiff-necked sisters follow
their example.
AS for the minor reasons. they exist In
plenty. The trousers idea never was any
hut rsIti %.
among the camp OF radicals daring thus
to brave the oppressor's wrong and the
proud mans contumely. They. are ugly.
they are conspicuous and-whether
rightly or wrongly-a hopeless majority
cannot be brought to regard them as
modest. Somehow and here again We
may may he right or wrong which doesn'
OF womanhoOd and of soft trailing dra.
peries have inextricably tangled them,
selves. together in the human mind.
dim Idea of protection and OF soft sur,
roundngs and of graceful prettiness as
Gocates itself with the skirt. and with
out II even the radical must struGEl,
hard not to think, like the old woman ir
Mother Goose when the mIschievon,
peddlcr "cut off her pettIcoats up to heI
knees"-
t.awkamercy on me. this ISnone o, Il
To overcome this objection 'hc offend
> ing Earment hag been wiicnel into tn,
divided skirt and Its variations which
as improvements on knickcrhOCkerS arr
, n success, but AS improvements on tn
long skirt COmiCaily recall Dr Holmes
description Of metaphysics: ITS like
! man splitting a log, when no Is done h.
! has two more To split Thus with on
refurmer-instoai ~ being done UP int
one bag she has two bags,
No, they won't wear them, Nor doe
the short skirt gain pcrccptiSly for rea
sons not very far to seek. II is no
an interrupted appearance about a skir
which stops short Of the ground tha
does not pleas" the eve. II tS an un
n happy medium, letwocn the roGulatiu
N "forty In hes" and the brief ballet skir;
$ there is no line uf beauty Then IN
. short skirt has an atruCiuus fashion d
. blowing up pretty nearly to ones ears
9 the only remedy hc'nE to make I; scan
g almost t pilluw-Case proportions As e.
: ankles, they may l." moral-a point q
which authorizes wrdnHle, but they Cei
n tainlv are not pretty, for few Of us ~Cl
o a 9 e shoe, and even when We DO ~
s effect Is hv far the best when. as the Cl
= poem puts IT,
J. Her Zee, beneath her pettiroat
Like little mice run In ami out
The troublc--t IL be a trpuhle-is thf
the case against the long skirt iSn't ser
Gus enough. When II trips US up
y running or Cunningly twists Itself rJuu
re mally at our heels In wet weather "
~ execrate. cry aloud for emancipation
ID but when 1t appears refuse 1t, liz
m Aesop's old man and Death, ana Il
N stray mortal who has the courage Of h,
le bifurcations Is left In lonely Granl"u
ID The average woman won't wear theT
That's the long and short OF II.