Evening star., 1895-09-14
BLooMERs ARE ALL RIGHT.

And the bicycle Is the EmancipatOr
of Feminine Thraldcm.
From the Philadelphia Record.
The bicycle girl who has been in doubt az
to the propriety and mcdesty Of the bloomer
garb need have no further quiverinSs of
conscience so far as this matter Is con-
cerned, for the Fellowship for Ethical Re-
search has set its stamp OF approval on the
much-discrssed garment, which some cy
cling women wear, and others wish to don,
but lack the courage. The nlorlentous
question of the Moral Influence of the BIZ
cycle" formed the subject of an address
which DR.. Isaac Hull Platt of Lakewood,
N. j., delivered before the Fellowship for
Ethical Research last evening in Mercan-
tile Library Hall. DR.. Piatt said the bi
cycle and the bloomer were all right SO
that settles IL.
The wheel was heralded by DR.. Piatt as
the em6ncipator of feminine tilraidoEl, and
he was especially warm in his coma aenda-
tion of bicycling for woman, and in her
cspousai Of a rational dress. The ardegt
champion did net allow himself to be drawn
off into discussion of the relative merits
Of divided skirts, the compromise short
skirt ard leSsinss, out-aEd-out bloomers,
or the extreme Of costume as cXempliiied N
Mary Walker trousers. He confined his at
tacks to the unwieldy skirts, which shackle
the limbs of women in general and the BIZ
cycle woman in particular, las ball and
chain on prisoners ankle" and discreetly
LIFT the mooted question OF trousers
compromise skirts for after consideration.
Or. Platt was Consistent; he clothed his
facts as plainly as he would have the b.
cycle woman .ciothe herself. When he
meant leg he odi5, not say limb. It was a
point in his fesnarks that when society
ceased to insist that women moved around
on wheels. ara conceded that they were
npeds. 5s s,1f, half The wftory Cor rational dress
81. u believe , tBa. there is no single trilu-
the ernancipstl2a Of woman ilcr use of
much as she q Ees It. it takes her from the
maddening nIhnosony Of the continual
journey from the scook stove to the sink.
1t besuiies her sinta, the open air, and un1er
the sway of enfranchsing and ennobl:rg
Influences of Hatuye. 1t gives her se!f-con-
fdence and iIdep4pdence, and, what is by
no means of the iss,st Importance, it prom
-ises to give bsr Il, rational costume by at
last relegatinss the, Skirt into fnnocuoas de-
suetude. ThaH a reasonable human being
should ever adops-a long skirt as an article
Of, daily apparel is ifcredibie. 1t must nave
been forced Upon woman in some preh;s-
tor.c age by her lord and master to mark
her serritude. and to act as shack.s 10
hamper her mo. ements and prevent her
from getting away, as bail and chain are
attached to the ankle of a prisoner. I'm
agine a man going about his daily avoca-
ton in a icnG skirt.
Il suppose that every Individual over the
age of two years and not an idiot is aware
of the fact that a normal woman has two
legs. and yet for scme reason, utterly uH-
accountable. it has been the convention for
countless ages for her to go through the
shallow farce of pretending that she has
none. Now that she has learned to ride
bicycle. she finds the skirt more incosI-
vcnient than ever before, besides being
dangerous and immodest. In q fit of deg
peration she is 6iscarding it, ard il would
seem before long that she will stand before
the world as the equal of man, free and
acknowledged biped. If the bicycle should
have no other moral influence than this, it
would be far from little"
d, DIR. Piatt vino IS an enthusiastic bicycl!ss
himself. advanced many other reasons in
his arguments TO prove that the bicycle is
of no, little moral influence. Its value in
exercise, amusement, utility of service, and
its democratic tendencies in making "all
men equal on wheel" were among those
which he pointed cut.