The Rock Island Argus and daily union. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1920-1923, 1922-02-27
Frederick Haskin's Letter
Shall Women Wear Trousers?


Knickerbockers for women seem to
be here to stay-for a while at
least. Women could not be convert
ed to boomers when they were in-
troduced by intellectual feminists
as reform in dress back in 1851.
But now few young happers stroll
OF the golf course in Knockers and
go down Main street to get a soda
and the youth of the nation ac-
claims the new style for street
wear.
For half a dozen decades there
have been prophets who saw, or
thought they saw, trousers for wo-
men on the horizon. A few times
indeed some daring feminine souls
did break away from the tyranny
of hoops and dust trailing skirts
to appear in boomers or even trou-
sers. But the experiments general
ly f1zzled out speedily.
There is an old letter written to
the Lowell Courier by st. Louis
woman regarding four young wo-
men who passed through Missouri
on their way west wearing mems
apparel Their father and brother
accompanied them and approved of
the style.
They were from Philadelphia,
and highly respectable" wrote the
CORES pendent, reporting on this
startling news item. Their suits
fine black dress coats, black pants,
buff vests, and hats of glossy black.
Their hair was cut short"
She also added that their con-
duct on the boat was perfectly lady
like.
This was about the middle of the
nineteenth century, when boomers
were raising such a furore. Short
hair was also being advocated by
highbrow women as being more
comfortable and sensible The idea
was that the short hair and bloom
ers would almost entirely relieve
woman from the care of personal
adornment. 1t was this angle of
approach and not the unattra Give
ness of boomers and short hair
which left the women of America
cold. Introduced as reform, short
hair and blocmers were laughed out
of existence in short order.
Boomers Were Misnamed.
A f1apper who could claim to be
the pioneer wearer of Knockers
would doubtless be proud of the
title. But back in 1851, Amelia
Bloomer lamented the fact that the
famous bioomer garment should
ever have been associated with
her name. She spent endless time
explaining that she was not the
first person to wear bloomeFs; that
they should really be "millerS" as
a Miss Miller was the first wearer,
and that. she had been connected
with the project in its early days
only by her articles favoring this
dress reform which appeared in the
Seneca Lily, a paper which she ed
tied. Later, she explained. she did
appear in boomers, but only be-
cause she believed it right to prac-
tice what she preached. However,
in spite of Mrs. Boomers pro-
tests, the name stuck.
1t is interesting to note that this !
garment which aroused SO much I,
excitement had about the same re-
lation to the skirts of the day that /
have to the skirts
of 1922.
WOmen's dresses in 1851 were
widely denounced on the ground of
being unhealthy. They were long,
heavy, and full. They traiIed in |
the dust to catch germs. They +
gathered mud from the wet streets ,
in rainy weather, and then tapped .
about the wearers' ankles to give /
hem coils and pneumonia. Yet no .
lady" dared lift her Voluminous |
skirts high enough to clear the |
streets.
Referring to this fashion one ed
tor declared that "a false modesty
has caused many a young girl to .
lie of consumption"
The first boomers were long like
hese skirts. Short boomers
would have been hooted off the
streets without a fighting chance
# it is possible to imagine the
girl of the period appearing in,
hem. The boomers which upset the
were full, ankle
ength affairs. A skirt consider
IDLY longer than our popular knee
ength specimen fell over them.
The effect was very Turkish, but to
,ur modern eyes it would be about /
Is daring as a deep sea diving i
,utfit.