The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1901-05-12

, 81 woman's sphere?
e Is Answer.-He is at nearly ev-
81 cry point, and we shah prove
it Look you:
First.-Centuries ago Queen
Eleanor of England invented
1 trousers as a modest and appropriate
garment for persons of her own sex
Men. seeing how convenient and eco
nomie of cloth they were. calmly took
possession of the new things for them
selves without so much as saying by
your leave" The story repeats itself
under our weary eyes today. Fifty
We ars ago Mrs. Amelia Bloomer-peace
be unto her-devised for women the
ti6v and lightweight dress which has
since borne her name The new attire
took away pounds of ciinging. clog
ring skirts that like unto mummy cere-
nents impeded woman's walk and gave
her the lightness of a bird. Mrs. Bloc
mer herself. Elizabeth Cady Stanton.
Susan B. Anthony, Gerrit Smiths
daughter-AIrs. Smith Miller-and other
heroic women souls here and there
adopted the new garb and strove to
make 1t go. But no. Men and boys
euyed them till their souls turned to
bitterness, and they were fam TO lapse
back into weight carrying and once
more running the race under handi-
cap.
Time wagged on. boomers or nc
bIoomers. and the bicycle was invented.
Women said. Now, surely in riding the
bicvcle we can>resurrect the buried bi-
furcation. since skirts flap and fly IN
pleasantly and ofttimes are chewed up
in the sprocket, thus endangering our
lives. But, again, no. Once more man
jeered and sneered them out Of their
boomers, then cooIly got into them him
self. 1t is like him. Today he wears
woman's boomers at football, baseball,
golf and throughout the count of his
athletic games. Whether he speeds him
away upon a bicycle or afoOt climbs a
mountainside he does it in boomers, wo-
mans boomers. In London and Paris
not so much in American cities as yet
one of the commonest sights is men /
walking the streets in "knickers." as /
they have named them TO disguise the /
theft, displaying without let OF hin i
drance a style of extremity Outlines /
enough to make an anatOmist shudder.
But whether their knees incline toward !
or from each other, whether their lower /
limbs be built on the elephantine or the /
scheme. it is all one. They 1
pass without note or comment. Nobody /
thinks anything of it. Women mean /
time have been driven into the handicap /
skirt again even on the bicycle. Men /
have taken away our boomers. and /
what have we left2
Second.-Last summer man invaded /
not quite boldly, but "nieechinglS" the
domain of woman's shirt waist. Now he
comes out in it shamelessly Whether
he will drive woman from her own shirt
waist back into the long, tight bodice
and pinching wooden sideboards her
great-grandmother wore remains TO be
seen. We watch with interest the re-
suit.
Thfrd.-Not even woman's ancient and
special matrimonial rerogatives are lon
ger sacred from the all grabbing grasp
of man. Time out Of mind it has been
woman's right to run into debt and
leave her husband to pay. If ne did not
wish to do so, he had recourse to ad-
vertising that he would liquidate no
bills of her contracting. But in this day
poor young men, virtuous or otherwise.
wed women of means and run up bills
MISUNDERSTANDING on the StieHSlu oA Liit
wife's bank account Witness that
flower of foreign nobility Count Boni 4
They manage these things
in France, but in our coun-
try a wife is now and then forced to
proclaim IN the public prints that she
viii pay no more debts of her husbands
In one recent case a well TO
do wife put notice in her county pa
per to the effect that she would pay SO
reward TO the person or persons return
ing 10 her in good condition her miss
ing husband Amos. the same having ]
aloped with her niece.
Nay. more-the feminine sex has no ;
longer exclusive privilege TO sue for ]
breach Of promise and get damage mon /
ey as a salve for broken heart. That .
o1cGCcrx1ococce Co.cc.egacCcnoc