The herald., 1895-09-15

|
condemned boomers without qualifica
: tion. He objects 10 them on physical a
well as moral. or spiritual grounds. III
declared that he would refuse to ever
speak in public with any bloomer girl
and would not even compromise himsel
by recognizing her should she speak t
him.
Everybody remembers Bishop Doane''
biting remarks about bloomers and tn,
storm stirred up in consequence. Anc
the opposition of Bishop Coke has gained
equal publicity.
ers was made, and is still made, by the
Rev. Il. b. Hawthorne, ID. d.. of Atlanta,
Ca, who is man OF unquestioned power
and influence in that church body. Dr..
Hawthorne's position in the matter may
be estimated by this extract from one oi
his early sermons on the subiect:
IF there is any object on earth which
makes jubilee in the realm of unclean
| spirits, 1t is society woman in mascu-
line ha5iiments, straddling a bicycle.
aud prepared to make an exhibition OF
her immodesty on the thoroughfares OF a
| great city.
| He characterized the custom at length
as degrading. as incompatible with true
| feminine modesty, and the wearers of 1t
| as weak creatures who coveted the pre-
negatives and pleasures of men. and who
| thereby became despicable in the eyes of
| al people OI NlTtVOuS SenSlDlltleS. lie
| declared women were riding to the devil
! in boomers, and wound up by declaring
| that he spoke In no unkindnsss to women
| who had been beguiled into the unwom-
anly conduct, but under the force OF a
] divine inspiration compelling him to
| save them from the fate of mai, who
! takes young tiger into his house as a
| plaything.
DR.. Hawthorne has kept up his cru
| SADIE, and it can be imagined what sort Of
a shindy he has stirred up. His sermons
and speeches have been spread more over
the west than the east, and his warfare
on boomers is standing topic in many
newspapers in that region, over which
the fors and againsts war increasingly.
DR.. Hawthorne thinks the bloomer craze
was born of infidelity and will follow the
new woman movement into an utter re-
pudiation of all Christian teachings. He
says: Nine women are against the BIZ
cycle lad where there is one in favor of
it, " and that he knows this from the
thousands of letters that have poured in
on him from all over the country. He
gets lots of abuse. but vast deal more
sympathy and encouragement. He de-
clares he will squelch the evil if the
newspapers will give him a fair show,
whatever he may mean by that, and
thinks that when the common sense and
innate modesty of the great mass Jf
women in this country asserts itself We
shall hear no more of the cyciienne and
her bloomers.
But as set off against DR.. Haw-
thorne's opposition is the emphatic sup
port of bloomers offered by the Rev. John
W. Shorten of the Methodist church in
Mason, o. lie is very popular man.
progressive and has great influence In
that region. An indication of this is the
fact that he has just been called to a
much larger sphere and higher place in
the church.
What brought DR.. Shorten and his
bloomer sympathies into prominence was
the indignant protests of the scandalized
anti-bloom critics in his congregation.
Boomers had, quietly made thsIr way in
the town, and their appearance on the
streets caused only the ment and dis
cussion common to the whole country.
But when the bloomer girls of DR..
Shortens s congregation came to week
night prayer meeting. and to cap all, the
woman organist one evening came to
play the organ attirsd in her bloomers,
the ,scandalized moralists could stand 1t
no longer, and they published the horror
broadcast.
The organst is Miss Ada Coleman, a
very comelv girl less than 20 years old.
She lives two miles out of town, and
rides bicycle back and forth. One even
ing she couldn't have the use of the
buggy, so she rode to prayer meeting in
church and created only a moderate sensa-
ton. But when the naxt regular oorvioo
night came around, and the oongrega-
alton was gathered devoutly waiting for
the opening prelude on the organ, Miss
Coleman entered, walked up the center
aisle and sat down at the organ with her
bloomers on Then the floodgateB of in
dIgnation were thrown wide open. Some
of the sisters got up and left the church.
Those who came to pray remained to
scoff, or to burn with indignation and
wait for chance at the bloomer girl.
The service was fiat failure. Miss Cole
man seemed unconscious of the sensation
she was creating, but when service was
over she hurried out and rode off home,
without giving the scandalized folk a
chance by waiting for the customary
social chat.
Before the week was out at least half a
dozen new suits OF bloomers appeared in
the streets of the town. Then the antis
met and organized their forces. They
couldn't take chances on another Sun
day service, so waited on the pastor on
Saturday night. They requested that he
take occasion in his sermon next day to
denounce from the pulpit the action of
the organist and her imitators.
DR.. Shorten said he couldn't conscien-
tiously do anything OF the kind. He
thought boomers were very sensible
costume for women to wear when bicyc-
ling. In fact, he heartily applauded the
idea. lie went out to watch the bloomer
girls practicing on the race track, and ap-
proved of their doing so. He is great
baseball enthusiast. He refused to touch
the subject in the pulpit, but was very
frank in telling the anti -bloomerites that
he was in favor of bloomers; that he
thought it was all right for the girls to
come to prayer meeting in boomers, and
that a modest girl was as modest in
bloomers as in skirts. Then big storm
blew up. But trouble was averted by
vacation time coming, and seemed
STAYED off, in Mason at least, by the fact
of DR.. Shorten's going to another charge.
But the bloomerites count this a good
set-off TO the opposition OF other clergy
men.
Various school boards throughout the
country have made trouble about bloom
ers, and three or four have positively
forbidden the teachers under their juris-
diction from wearing the things to
school, because Of the evil effect on the
mind of the young. A Long Island board
was about the first to put itself on record
in this way. The Toronto board recently
discussed the advisability of passing a
resolution forbidding teachers from ap-
pearing on the streets in ''the male at
tire commonly called boomers There
was majority in favor of it, but the
minority made such a vigorous oppo-
sition that the resolution was tabled be-
cause of the discovery Of city ordinance
in the attire of men, This, they
thought, squeIohd the bloomerites in u
very scornful style.
1t seems to be a fact that q very large
proportion Of women are against bloom
ers. This may not seem so to the casual