Norwich bulletin., 1921-09-07
ODD INCIDENTS IN AMERIcAN
 HISTORY
rHE BLooaIER PERIoD

The present aggressive campaign for the national emancipation of women, in which they exact the franchise on an equality footing with men was started in 1S4S when Lucretia Mott, Martha .. Wright, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Mary Ann McClintock issued a call in the Seneca. County (New York) Courier for a Wowan's Rights Convention to be held at Seneca Falls. The gathering was somewhat local but from those present came a declaration of sentiments, fash toned after the Declarations of lnde- pendence and a series of resolutions. A
 hundred men and women signed the declaration.
 To the newspapers of that day the proceedings were a source of much am usements. Under such headlines of The Reign of Petticoats, BoIting Among the Ladies, etc., journal after journal made fun of the Amazons as they were termed. But the movement was not to be checked by ridiclue
 Two years later, in 1850 some women attending an anti-slavery meeting in Bos- ton laid down plans for national women's s rights covention to meet in Worcester, Mass. Such conventions now became of yearly occurrence. One of the largest gatherings that had been held up to this time was called in session in June 1854 at Boston. The crowds which came to this convention wese composed of anti slavery leaders, male and female and their ardent followers, temperance agi- tators, and social refoTm mers great and small.
 Conspieuous among these last were the followers of Amelia Bloonler. Nothing lin the opinion of this element of the convention was more absurd than for women to clamor for their social, civil and political rights while they continued to wear long skirts and corsets. If wo- man was to take her place by the side of man as his equal, if she were to compete with him in the professions, radest and callings, she must abandon her foolish costume and adopt one bet ter fitted to her new sphere of action. Such a one was that worn by Mrs. ] Bloomer, consisting of gaiters, loose Turkish trousers, skirt that came down l to the knees, a short jacket and gypsy hat of straw Lucy Stone, Susan B. An | thony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and a host of other women put on the bloomer costume and wore it in public and at conventions.
 l But this dress reform went farther 1 and was adopted by women who seem never to have troubled themselves abou l the wrongs of the colored race or those
 of her sex. At Lowell Mass, operatives wore hloomers and on the Fourth of 1 July marched in the parade so attired. | When two females clad in the strange garments appeared one evening on Wash l ington street, Boston, the rabble of jeer- l ing boys and men that followed them be-
 came so great that they were forced
 to seek refuge in carriage. Two others who attempted to walk the streets oi
 Baltimore dressed a la Turk had a sim l liar experience.
 Some young women of Easthampton Mass, having appeared iA bloomers, the minister warned them that if they con, tinued to wear such clothes he would sever their connection with the church
 When the Hydropathists held a cold water festival on the shore of Skane- ateies Lake, two score women present
 wore bloomers and were addressed b. Mrs. BlQo1ner, Mrs. Stanton, and other. wearing the reform dress
 At New York there was a meetins of friends of the bicurcated costume il Hope Chapels With the public the crazt soon ran it's course. Ridiculed by tn, press, jeered by the crowd, frowned a by their own sex, the mass of womel who at first so eagerly donned the shor skirt and trousers quickly went back t ItheE old dress.
 But there were others or sterner mak who continued to look up to Mrs. Bloome las their guide, read her monthly jour Inal The Lily and attended women's right