The herald., 1895-09-15

of.garment known by that name. Th,
bloomers OF today are in no way like tn,
articles worn and made famous by Mrs
BloomeE. and it is entirely PROBABLE Mrs
bloomers. She did express o most EN-
pnatic disapproval of the present style o!
bloomers, as she had seen them repre-
sented in fashion plates and illustrate
newspapers. But neither did Mrs.
Bloomer invent the peculiar style of cos
tune she wore SO long and advocated SC
much, and which, 1t might be said, nc
modern girl would wear in public for til I
wealth OF worlds. Indeed, not more than
handful of people ever wore the cos
tune Mrs. Bloomer wanted all woman.
| kind to wear.
Mrs. Boomers bloomers were invented
by Miss Elizabeth Smith of Geneva, n.
Y. The cut of the costume has been
made familiar by any mum ber of repro
ductlons in illustrated publications of all
kinds during the pass year or so. 1t was
far from beautiful, and could rarely nave
been at all becoming to the wearer, while
1t cannot be gainsald that m odern bloom
ers are vastly beceming to some folk who
| wearsthen. Miss Smiths costume, which
Mrs. Bloomer copied, consisted of bifur-
Gated neither garments. which, SO far as
could. be seen, were exactly like the trous-
ers wern by men; skirt reaching to be-
| tween the knee and the fsot, and a man s
short jacket worn under woman's long
| CLOAK. The trousers only reached TO the
waist, where they were buttoned to a
| short skirt, pretty much as boys knick-
erbockers are fastened TO his shirt waist.
Of course the great advantage was in
DONG away with the sweeping skirts.
But as said it was almost hideous
comb binat1on. and boomers would never
have really blossomed had not the bicy-
Gle come aloa.g. Mrs. Bloomer herself
abandoned the nbecomIng dress some
years before she died. She had advocated
its adoption between twenty and thirty
years, but without avail, and 1T was prac-
tically after she had gone back on bloom
ers that the new costume which has ap-
prepriated that name came into vogue
Miss Smith. who is stillsliving in this
state, being now Mrs. Miller, had the
costume made more as a girlish freak
than anything else, and soon abandoned
the wearing of it. 1t was while she was
visiting friends at Seneca Falls, N. Y,
whore Mrs. Bloomer then lived that
the latter saw the costume and was smi t.
ten with 1t. Had Mrs. BIoomer set to
work to evolve from the germ:nal idea of
Miss Smith a really scientific costume,
she might have seen the women of the
whole ooutry wearing it as a matter of
fact long before she died. And it would
not have needed thirty or forty years
OF preaching and printing about it to ac-
compIish this result. Dress reformers
have been wrestling with their hobby
long enough to know that women won't
be preached or persuaded or frightened
into dress reform. But let it be noted
that Mrs. Bioomer did not invent the cos
tune that for forty years gave her fame
throughout the country; and that the
bloomers of today are not, any way, the
KIND of thing she advocated. She went
to her grave protesting against the honoi
thrust on her in the assumption that she
invented bloomeis, and still more en-
phatlcally protesting against being iden-
titled with the bicycle bloomer movement
and all that it has brought in its train.
The only bifurcated dress for women
with which this country was familiar
when the bicycle girl sprung her surprise
on the people was the ''bloomer" cos
tune, and so the bicycle girls astonishers
were promptly christened bloemers. After
ALL it's lucky the name boomers was ly.
ing ready to hand, for if it hadn't been
it is more than likely the graphic but
horrible name of "bags" would have
been i'm mediately and irrevocably tagged
to the bicycle girls new neither wear by
a discerning and hasty public as it has
been BY slangy scoffers.
But the bloomer movement itself is by
no means new, except in this country.
In other lands. and under other circum-
stances, women have worn treusers-iust
sim ply trousers, not bloomers-for as
long as the records of men reach back,
inoecu, " II cIdllueu tnat women wore
trousers before man did, and that the
men took to the split garment when they
appreciated what good thing women
had. And it is related that there was as
much of a stir when men first took to
bloomers, TO use the generic name, as
has been aroused lately over women's re-
taking to them. Persian women wore
trousers at a time when everyone else
wore skirts. The Persian men adopted
trousers soon after they conquered the
Medes, and Strabo. the Greek historian,
comments with much sarcastic humor on
the effeminacy of the Persian men in
adopting bloomers. About the end of
the third or the beginning of the fourth
century the Roman mobiles began to wear
trousers instead of skirsts, and there was
much scandal and opposition because of
the effeminancy of the costume. Interest
ing examples of the survival of the old
style of things is afforded in the act that
to this day the Greek and Scotch soldiers
wear skirts. while the women of many
eastern countries wear trousers. So the
bloomer girl may comfort herself in
claiming that she is only claiming her
own again.
But in later times women of various
lands have worn and now wear trousers,
for precisely the same reason as tnat
offered by the bloomer girl, that of con
venience and comfort The Esquimau
women wear practically the same kind of
clothing as the Esoulmau men, and as
the men rarely have hair on their faces
it is not an easy matter to distinguish
the men from the women when seen in
group. Esquimau men wear trousers be-
cause trousers a,e the only kind of neither
garment wearabe in their native land.
1t is with them case of necessity even
more than convenience. The Swiss wo-
men, too, in many cantons. wear trousers
for convenience. At least they did until
the American and English tourist pene-
trated into every nook and corner of
Switzerland. The tourists viewed the
trousured.. woman with so much curiosity
that nowadays the women wear skirts,
except in remote localities or out of the
tourist season. The SWISS women wear
trousers for convenience. They do full
snare of the work in the fields and about
the farms, ar d OH the steep slopes of the
Alpine pastures and among the danger
GUS rugged paths followed by the sheen
and cattle skirts would be a danger as
well as a discomfort.
The fact that generations of these wo-
mon have worn trousers without once
wanting to wear whiskers or to sit in
Legislatures or manage political CAM
paign or usurp any other of the peculiar
rights and privileges OF men, may per-
| haps be an argument for the bloomer
| pirIs.