The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1895-01-02
BLooMERs AND DRESS REFORM.

By curious irony OF fate, Mrs. Bloomer
died just as the dress reform to which her
name is attached is being agitaled> once
more. She herself repanted 10 sackcloth
and ashes the part she had taken in inau-
gurating the reform. For thirty years she
has dressed as other women have, and she
has always reproached herself for having
brought ridicule on the cause Of woman's
rights by adopting. for convenience sake,
costume which made fly-gobblers laugh.
1t enraged her to hear that Mrs. DR.. Mary
Walker was wearing boomers.
There was, however. grain of common
sense 10 her proposed revolution 10 female
attire. Atthe time she donned the short
skirt fashion required ladies to wear so
much underclothing that the weight of it
was The cause of diseases which were diff
cult to cure. Portions of the human body
are adapted to carrying heavy weights, but
the female waist is not one of them.
Again, in wet and muddy weather, then
as now, long skirts involve vexatious in
convenience. The spectacle which shop
pers presented last week on Kearny and
Market streets, with their skirts punched
in one hand and umbrella In another, and
paper parcel tucked under the arm,
would have made Nestor laugh. 1t was 10
obviate these annoyances that Mrs.
Boomer and others-for she was only one
of many invenlors-devised a skirt falling
slightly below the knee. and trousers tied
by ribbon glrt with frills round the
ankle.
The costume was convenient but it
never became the fashion. Why it aid not
become fashionable may be accounted for
in various ways; suffice it here to state
the fact. Turkish women. Persian women,
indeed the women of Asia generally, wear
short skirts and trousers. That style of
get-up is probably admired in the coun-
tries where 1t is worn, but when the
esthetic American eye contemplate5 the
Illustrations to Lalla Rookh, or Lord
Byron's poems, in which the divine bellies
of the Orient are depicted with panties
tied at the ankles, it is not pleased. To
this day the traveller in Turkey. who be-
holds the waddliDg forms of the goddesses
of the haremS with their lower eXtremi-
ties inclosed in two pillowcases, under
stands why the Mosems excluded women
from Paradise until their need for earthly
clothing had passed away.
The social eye becomes educated to GER
tain forms and shares, and any novelty
which departs from them seems incongru-
Gus. Modern reformers, who thought
they had made discovery when they in
vented divided skirts, ignored this obvious
principle. But it was plain TO the artistic
perception that, while this attempt to
blend the costumes of the sexes might
answer on the stage. it was sure to offend
correct taste. If the bifurcated skirt
could succeed anywhere it would have
been in riding habits worn by ladies and
in bicycle costumes. But it has gone out
in both ca ses.
The crack teacher of bicycling at the
East is negro. who is employed at all the
fashionable girl boarding-scL in New
York. He is man of sense. as we'll as an
adept on the wheel. He will not let his
pupils wear boomers or any garment cut
after their pattern. ''These sort o.
things" says he TO the teachers who en-
ploy him, would make your girls look
like little men,"