The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1912-08-30
WoMAN's DRESS AND HER WANT
OF DRESS

/ 80 $4,000
gender of creation
The balloon hoopskirts," worn By
the little tots and their mothers when
We were a boy (the little tots now
grown TO be grandmohers) was the
subject of hostile criticism on the
part of the pulpit and the press.
The style was a delectable dish for
the wits and humorists of that day.
The hustle and the "Grecian
bend" in turn. met with the same
measure of condemnation. and the
sheath gown" was shattered from
stem to stern by the pretended fury
of us male critics.
Now the "hobble skirt" and the
"peek-a-boo" waists are anathematiz-
ed with just as much fury as the
wide-spreading "hoopskirts" We're in
the sixties
Ishmael-like, every male hand is
raised against the fashion in dress OF
our dear women in their efforts to
appear attractive and pleasing to the
members of the opposite sex.
The only time that We can remem-
Der when our mothers siIenced the
newspapers and tied the hands Of the
preachers was when they wore long
trains" and their skirts dragged in
the filth and mire OF the streets, AMI
became a breeding and hiding place
for consumptive and other malignant
germs.
We heard an eminent bishop say
from the pulpit no longer ago than
last Sunday that the dress of some of
our fashionable women now seen on
the principal streets Of some Of our
cities would be a disgrace to any bed.
room in Christendom.
But the women were made to bear
and fOrbear and are compelled to
meekly submit to these severe and
hostile criticisms
Perhaps when they are fully eman.
cipated, are raised to the high plane
occupied by men, are given the ballot
and are permitted to wear the vesture
of bishops, the critics, the wits and
humorists will be put to flight
We remember when roller skat-
| ing" became a fad, and our girls es.
sayed to engage in its pleasures, how
they had to run the same gauntlet Of
unfriendly criticism, and when she
| consented to stride a bicycle, both
press and pulpit at once pro-
claimed that she had deliberately
consented to unsex her SEX and tn :
modesty, which had been her crown
jewel since creation, had gone to re-
turn no more forever.
And. my, my, when she began rid
| ing cross saddle" what scandal it
created throughout the land
| All modesty now had gone, and on"
| girls and our women would never be
girls and women any more-they
would be without the strength and
manliness of men and the grace and
modesty of women.
All the world looked bleak and for
bidding and we had indeed fallen
upon evil times.
But, horror of horrors! Those
things were as nothing compared to
| their demand for the ballot.
Meeting, minSl'ng and iostling with
men would indeed and in truth ;lnsex
them, as if they did not meet, minglc
and jostle with the men at the postof-
fee. in theaters and churches, and al
boarding houses and hotels, AMI in
their attempts TO board trains
Women exercise the right 0f the
ballot in some of the states. and the
governors of those states, and others
in authority, say that they sn'! be
have themselves as women and con-.
pei the respect and courtesy o. men
How we'll do we ren ember when
the shirtWaiSt was first worn-noW ev
SFyWnerS T6COSulZ0Q DIS q great DOO!l
to womanhood the world o. err now
it was proclaimed far and near that
the women were trying to ape the
manners Of men and were strayins
away as far as possible from their
own femininity
And the modest collar and neckt Z
had to be worn at the expense of the
usual pungent paragraphs.
| And the coat suit My, my! how
it was ridiculed and rallied against.
Women wanted to be men. They
wanted to lose their womanly graces.
us" male critics, having consti-
tuted ourselves the very lords of Gre
alton, have declared that We can a.
our own sweet pleasure array our
selves in any costume that suits our
fancy. We can wear wigs and peri
wigs. We can wear knee breeches,