ch in its essence did not exist
then. The stream of human aspirations, with its stretches of wisdom
and of folly, has flowed steadily through the ages, and on its
troubled surface men and women have always struggled together as they
are struggling to-day. These little comments simply seem to the writer
worth making because for the moment the truths behind them are not
getting as much attention as they deserve. Certainly the tyranny dress
exercises over the woman in this American democracy is an old enough
theme. Indeed, it has always formed a part of her program of
emancipation. Out of her revolt against its absurdities has come the
most definite development in American costume which we have had, and
that is the sensible street costume, which in spite of efforts to
distort and displace it, a woman still may wear without
differentiating herself from her fellows.

The short skirt and jacket, the shirt waist and stout boots, a woman
is allowed to-day, are among the good things which the Woman's Rights
movement of the 40's and 50's helped secure for us. When those able
leaders made their attack on man, demanding that the world in which he
moved be opened to them, they were quick enough to see that if they
succeeded in their undertaking they would be hampered by their
clothes. They revolted! True, they did not voice this revolt in their
historic list of "injuries and usurpations on the part of man toward
woman." They did not say, "He has compelled her to hamper herself
with skirts and stays, to decorate her head with rats and puffs, to
paint her face with poisonous compounds, to walk the street in
footwear which is neither suitable nor comfortable!"

This statement, however, would have had the same quality of truth as
several which were included in the "List of Grievances"; the same as
the declaration: "He has compelled her to submit to laws in the
formation of which she has had no voice," or, "He has denied her the
facilities for obtaining a thorough education, all colleges being
closed against her."

Dress reformers were admitted to the ranks of the agitators. The
initial revolt was thoroughgoing. They discarded the corset, discarded
it when it was still improper to speak the word! They cut off their
hair, cut it off in a day when every woman owned a chignon. They
discarded the corset, cut off their hair, and adopted bloomers!

The story of the bloomer is piquant. It was launched and worn. It
became the subject of pla