The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1896-05-09
BLOOMERS WANING
lha Short Skirt is to Be the Popular
Bicycle Costume.
REASON OF THE DECLINE
They We're Not suited to the
Style of Beauty of Some
OF the Ladies' Who
Wore Them.
Rloomers are ON the wane.


the boomers. the neat. the baggy, the
loud and the modest boomers, have
reached their proud zenith of glory and
having passed the meridian OF pubic
fancy are on the down-hill shoot. It's
true they are yet TO be seen upon the
street-these natty, jaunty, baggy gar
ments, but they are not as many as
were once to be seen, and If reports
be true. in many places the baggy legs
of last years boomers are being re-
yersed into puffed-out sleeves of this
years waist, while the place OF the
former garment is being taken by
short skirts And why not? girl
looks more graceful. more attractive in
the latter garment. The doom OF une
bloomer lays in the fact that they are
not becoming.
In Turkey women hide their face be-
meath heavy veil, and the ugliest one
in all the nation is priced as beauty
until, perchance, her face is uncovered
and then-with the fellow who sees
that face IL is all off. The fault was
not so much to be found with the
boomers, but rather with individuals
who wore them. Nature in the distri-
button of form and shape has not been
as kind to some as others. Many peo-
pie are called handsome by those who
have never seen them. The goodly
matron, with form not intended for dis
play, fit out I'm a pair of baggy bloom
ers, cuts a figure that would well have
made Mrs Bloomer herself hide her
face in shame and exclaim: In the
name of heaven. why did l even invent
this garment" And this same matron.
perhaps, imagined herself young and
girlish.
The tall. gaunt, peaked-faced, man
nish woman also donned this style OF
garment, and 10 and behold what
sight she was! The husband of such as
these, II perchance they had a hus-
band, ceased the talk OF extravagant
expenditure for large sleeves and full
skirts, but recalled the familiar express
sion. 1.-THE owl is a very small bird
when robbed of his feathers" and these
self-same husbands were only too anx-
ious to get new set o. feathers for
the OWL no matter what the cost might
be-
But the whole trouble does not lie in
the individual who wears them. These
boomers have to be made, and as you
have no doubt often noticed, a great
many of them look as though they had
been cut out by buzz saw In quartz
mill, with the skillful assistance of a
section hand. Erstwhile shirts, reyer-
sable big sleeves, discarded jeans. have
been recalled from the misty garrett
and cellar closets, where they were laid
away until kind charity should make a
call, and each in turn manufactured
into a pair of boomers. In great
many cases the material thus secured
was not enough to make the baggy,
discouraging kind, and the result was
pair of boomers that, when placed
beside the Coney Island bathing suit.
would call forth the expression horse
and horse" and 10 chances to one In
the shake off the boomers would win.
Those who were able to dig up enough
material TO build a regulation pair of
boomers, scorched down the street re-
minding one very much of Sol Smith
Russells old blue cotton umbrella with
all it's ribs broken and handle end
down.
OF course there have been and are
now lots of girls who look well In
boomers. Neatly mounted on light
wheel they are pretty attractive and
withal rather charming. But these
girls. in natures grand lottery. have
drawn capital prizes of form, and wher
II come to the manufacture of bloom
ers with which to cover those forms
they have had them neatly and prop
erly made. Against such as these there
never has been comment, save, per-
haps. from the aforesaid goodly mat
ron and brawny woman, In whose
makeup there is a pay streak of jeal
ousy.
The decline of boomers. for certainly
and surely they are declining. IL re
ports are true, is due to the fact tha
barn yard fowls have robed themselves
I'm the peacock feathers and wondei
why they are not admired and by 81
doing have robbed the peacock of al
its glory If ladies who ride bicycle,
would all choose a garment suited e
their particular averdupois and shape
they would always appear at the best
but a 200-pound woman with a pair o
baggy boomers riding side by sid
with the slN-foot, gaunt, peaked-facet
old maid with the same sized boomer
is liable to call forth comment. Blu
the fault. instead OF being made to tn
particular style of build of these wear
ers, has caused all kinds of hard thing
TO be said about the garment. Though
the bloomer is surely going, the swee
and pretty girl who wore IL is still here
SO are the others. The former will b
at the sea side and the lake shore whel
the warm June and July days come
You will Sc here there and you will ad
mire her as you always have and al
ways Will But the others They wi
be there too. The goodly matron. ella
in the proper garments for one of he
kind and the prudish old maid who.
few weeks before. rode around the cit
wearing a pair of boomers that CAV
the wind a magnificent show. will s
on the beach and cry out, "Anthon
comstock. where art thou?"
The boomers are going, and you VIII
have been wearing them might as we
make up your mind TO that fact. Don
LET il worry you. however. There wi
be the short skirts and after all. girl
even you. with Psyche form. look be
ter I'm them. for you Will have to col
fess that boomers have an ungainl
appearance. Girls. you must rememb'
that IL you have a weakness IL Is
your desire to look well In the eyes
the opposite sex. You have tried u
boomers and know that as a rule 70
do not look well in them, and there. Il
deed Is the secret of the death the
mannish garments are dying. It's
kind of suicide. for the very shape
the thing has been their downfall.
Bustles came and went Bloome
came. and though IL has been erie
from one end Of the land TO the 9th
that they are womans emanclpauo
women don't want 10 be emancipate
what indeed has she To be emang