Walker Lake bulletin. (Hawthorne, Nev.) 1883-1926, 1895-06-12
GIRLS IN BLOOMERS.
Dress Reform the Fad Among
Women,
ON THE STREETS AND In THE "GYM"
Young Men are No Longer Startled and
Regard the Innovation as Matter
of Course.


The interesting girl students-600 in
Misunderstanding the University of
Michigan, at Ann Arbor have among
them many disciples of dress reform.
They affect the bloomer style, and thus
attired go to recitations, appear on the
streets or exercise in the gymnasium.
The bloomer girl at Ann Arbor long ago
ceased to be public curiosity.
The students hail from all parts of
the universe, from China to the remotest
backwoods town in Michigan. In age
they range from sweet sixteen to sixty
five, which are the years of one woman
in the university. The intermediate
and perhaps more common state is
that of old maidship, and many are the
spinster matirculates, particularly in
the medical department, where plain
Goods" change to 'hen-medics. 1t
may naturally be inferred that with
all this diversity in age and origin
there is no lack of popularity in beliefs
and manners. Between the radical
WOludu bunIdSlSU anu bt1OhS -AhAhuOu
woman, on one hand, and the sorority
SWELL" known to the boys as
whale" who believes in little fiirt-
ing mixed with history and Greek, on
the other, there are the plain woman,
the everyday, matter of-fact woman
and the woman whom nobody knows.
1t may we'll be imagined then that,
amid all the talk Of the day on dress
reform, the big university town is one
of the places where new ideas on dress
hold sway The independent woman
is there in all her glory and is not
backward about having it known.
Ann Arbor, for this reason. has known
the bloomer girl from the first.
Three years ago some of the most
daring spirits among the goods inau-
gurated reform they had fondly been
nurturing in secret. A quiet little
mass meeting was. held and over forty
goods pledged themselves to declare
their emancipation from skirts when
the weather dictated. In other words,
they adopted rainy-day costume, con-
sisting Of short skirts reaching barely
below the knees and CATERS reaching
from the shoes to the skirts. Over
the dress was worn waterproof cloak.
Their plans promulgated, the jealous
reformers waited for rain. But Provi-
dence was unkind to change so sud-
den and the rain came not. The year
passed with but few rainy-days and
the reform failed to flourish. The
rainy-day costumes passed into the
closets of their owners and most of
them have failed to find the light since.
The movement was not wholly
failure, however, for each year since
there have been from three to ten fair
maidens in the university who have
stood by the short skirt valiantly and
have prayed for rain to exempt them
from their despised trailing gowns.
The Ann Arbor male student has grown
accustomed to it and meets the airy
damsel in the dress Of thirteen-year-
old without even shudder. She at
tracts scarcely glance from him, in
fact, when she drops down across the
aisle from him in class.
But the first rainy day of his college
life sadly befuddles the poor freshman.
On his way across the campus he comes
in sight of some short-skirted coed
and fetches up short to stand and stare
until brought to his senses by her ex
clamation of indignation.
The present year, too, has seen its
innovations, for the coed must be up
to date. Divided skirts no longer 60,
since boomers became the fad. The
bloomer trade is lively in Ann Harbor
since the opening of the new Water
man gymnasium last November. Here
$50 co-eds have lockers, and they as
semble there every morning for muscu
lar Improvement 1t would take
woman reporter to describe the sights,
for the male is vigorously excluded.
A picture of one of the classes strayed
out upon the campus recently and be-
trayed the secert. One hundred co-eds,
fair and otherwise, were seen posed in
the wand drill, dressed in the latest
approved style of boomers.
The bloomer is not confined strictly
within gymnasium walls, however, but
strolls at large somewhat. Two goods,
one slit" and one a chen. medic"
appear daily in this new woman's"
dress. One has been obliged to make
change of costume before each meal,
as her boarding house keeper refused to
allow her to come to the table lin
those awful things" With admirable
pertinacity. however, she continues to
go abroad in her chosen habiliments.
The thing has become too trite for
notice now. and another year the cam
pus may blossom out with bloomers of
all sizos and Shapac