Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1896-03-14

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llWNsi:yA, HMM as many had done
lmpedes the free
movement Of the
~ legs and Is in danger
~ of being caught in the
machinery. hit upon the simplest and most
obvious of devices. She reached down in
front, caught the back edge of her skirt
between her feet and pulled it up between
her knees. The result was a modest and
practical pair of boomers while on the
wheel which instantly fell into the ordinary
skirt on her descent.
This discovery may have been made in
Berlin, London or New York; but in all
probability it was made in Paris.
This improvised bloomer is still to be met
with numerously in Paris, particularly in
the questionable northern southern and
eastern suburbs. where holiday afternoons
are enjoyed with more zest than prepara-
tion. Inc natural feminine tendency to
wofldilhess, luxury and expense however,
mas effected its substitution by regularly
made blcomers in the more posing West
lLiid. AS a matter of fact in the spring of
1873 pioomcrs have come to stay though
tney are not called boomers, but panta-
looms.
Tourists who get up early enough in the
morning to take a turn in the Bots at tho
fashionable hour of 10 m will be repaid
by the sight of numberless young married
ladies' OF the highest fashion APPEALING in
zouaves, with only old-fashioned clubmen
TO mutter at this innovation as at all other
Signs or the times. Il care no more for the
park, it's disgusting. Even in the morning
nowadays ITS full Of bicyclists and for
eigners! Look at those costumes! THEY'RE
70 longer women!' Yet these tight or
ioose-Dreeched DANES are of the Partisan
1oo. lney wear pantaloons and ride on
mems machines.
Every Kind of Wheel.
Paris Is so complicated in its social Or
ders-like a universe of stars that keen
their tracks, and yet appear to form con-
steliationS-that a passing visitor may east
~ be deceived on the bicycle boomer cues
ton. The afternoon hurley hurley of the
Bols. say, near the Avenue of the Grand
Armee, shows every kind Of costume. as it
shows every Kind of wheel; and it takes an
experienced person to separate-not the
wheat from the ehaff-but the various
grains the Wheat. the rye. the barley, the
corn and the chaff of each from the mix
ture. American tourist girls are often hor-
rlf1ed at the costumes they see They are
more frequently moved to laughter The
truth Is that as yet Paris has evolved no
settled styles in boomers Therefore while
some err from daring others err from had
judgment, and many more by reasons of
economy.
Inc American girls complain that the
great majority of the Partisan bicyc,e
boomers are dnwdy. 1t is true and could
hardly be otherwise. 1t must be remem-
bered that the middle class Parisienne de-
pendS on the ready-made gown department
of the great shops almost as much as the
American middle-c,ass man depends on the
ready-made suit industry, which so distin-
CUISINES our country. And, furthermore
the adaptability" and elegance" tradi-
tionally ascrbed to the Parisienne has
heretofore always had to do with very fem
ln1ne and frou-frou types of dress The or
binary Paristenne has not vet achieved the
real tallor-made gown; and until recent
date she would not have desired It. Now
she runs to the Louvre or the Bon Marcba
lor a bicycle costume-and. the whole mat
ter being new to her, takes docilely what is
given her -
When the fashionable dressmakers or
neW-fang!ed ladies' tailors are called in the
bioomers and waists are apt to be of an ex-
asgerated Scotch or English look in which
all out the most up-to-date workings of the
4oo lind themselves uncomfortable. With
this there is no mistakfng English and
American girls in the Bots today, boomers
or no boomers. Perhaps it is partly be-
cause French young women are plumper-
to be poite-than our own. For example,
with them, on the bicycle as off It, the CEN
ter of gravity yields to no assimilation.
One is constantly reminded of full moons
or sofa cushions. What the dressmakers
achieve In the waist they seem to lose be-
low 1t. The French woman being differ
entity built from the Angio-Saxon, both go
Ing and coming, she appears to sprawl more
in boomers. She looks queer enough seated
on the machine, but once she descends she
locks queerer.
Restricted to Married Women.
Two other factors enter into the queer
ness Of all the feminine bicycling of Paris.
The great majority of lady riders are not
unmarried girls of good society. These lat
ter may attempt the wheel in the privacy
Of the country. but they do not show in any
number in the park In all the classes-the
aristocracy, the bourgeoisie and the little"
bourgeoisie-it Is the young married woman
who pedals. This fact presents an ensem-
BILE of maturity to the newly arrived Amer
lean. Now, what would be luxurious when
safe guarded by all the articles Of femi-
nine attire, which have stood the test of
ages, becomes mere ostentation under the
simplicity Of the bloomer. The change for
the great mass Of French lady cyclists has
been too great.
1t, both the lighter-minded of the half
world" and their more estimable sisters
Some-in both categories-have frankly
taken up mems costumes, loose knicker-
bockers, and lOngish sack coats. Others
wear tight knee breeches and fancy jerseys
Others, add to this short skirt, reaching to
the knees. with or without leggings or
heavy Scotch stockings. For these it Is any
thing to get away from the organ-grinder-
monkey effect threatened by zouaves or
boomers.
In this way tfey accomplish great deal
in gracefulness of outline at the expense of
a very little modesty. Speaking simply from
the standpoint of architecture, boomers dis
figure lovely woman by hanging below the
knees
1t is almost pitiful to See them reveing
in their new-found liberty Of costume. They
would overrun the Partisan promenade did
not an ordinance Of the project Of police
forbid the appearance of bicycle costume
without a bicycle. Recently there was an
attempt to enforce this mandate strictly,
and it failed. The only law on which the
project Of police had to go was that for
bidding one sex to attire itself in the garb of
another. A test case provoked q dictum
from judge to the effect that boomers or
zouaves could not by any possibility be
looked on as a male costume. Nowadays,
therefore, SO long as the damsels confine
their promenades en- pantalon to the festive
quarters like Montmartre and the Latin
Quarter, they are not Inolested, being char
itably supposed to have their wheels some
where nearby.
May Result In Emancipation,
Parisiennes willingly accept what they
know to be only doubtfully becoming! It ia