The World from New York, New York • Page 25

HE WORLD. PAGES 25 TO 32. NEW YORK, SUNDAY, MARCH 4, 1894. One at The World's Young Women Makes a Practical Test ol the Comforts oi the "Divided Skirt" DRESS REFORM COSTUME Her Own Sex Called Her Freak, but the Men Treated Her with Respectful Curiosity. A SENSIBLE COSTUME FOR OMEN The Boston Dress Reformers Welcomed Her Warmly and Showed Her Their Own "Reform" Toggery.

NO COSSETS OR HEAVY SKIRTS She Made a Sensation in City Hall Park, and Boarded a Street- Car Without Stopping It, JUST WHAT THE NEW-FANGLED SDIT IS, It Hu Won Many Converts Among Women Wit Realize Burdens of Pettiooiti have htard a great deal lately about Vdress reform" and "divided that the women of the next generation will all wear "trouserettes" and no corsets. I have spent a week in a dress reform costume, a divided skirt, a corsetless waist and all. And I declare It Is the most comfortable, sensible costume you can Imagine. I have made a faithful, Jjonest test, and I have convinced myself, against all my prejudices, that the dress reformers are not cranks. I have about made up my mind to wear trouserettes the rest of my life.

I travelled about New York and made a trip to Boston to see some of the dress reform leaders, and of course I had many novel experiences. I was stared at and laughed at In New York by swell young men, whose winter coats were as long as my own, and In Boston the Athenian proprieties of the disciples Of culture were first shocked and then pleased by the sight of a woman in a new-fangled dress swinging, man-like, the Breezy common. GAZED AT BY MEN. I was good-humoreclly guyed, ridiculed bantered by the Broadway crowds, who caught sight of my costume as I pushed across that thoroughfare on my way to the Park place station. On the Sixth avenue trains I realized what It was to be the observed of all observers.

The men were bold. They looked right at me. They took In all there was to be seen. With calm, matter-of-fact perspicuity, they surveyed the generous folds of my trouserettes, billowing gracefully out from under the expansive skirt of my long tailor-made coat; they calculated to a the exact distance at which my trouserettes were caught up above the ankles; they examined the mannish cut of my waistcoat, with Its open bosom and correct four-in-hand tie and collar above, and noted the snug flt and draping of my coat; they saw all this, smiled, nudged one another, exchanged a pleasantry or two, and then let me alone. For this I am thankful.

WOMEN WERE SHY. As for the hundreds of women who they simply couldn't believe their eyes. They stared me out of countenance. They discussed me. They said I was a "perfect fright," a "freak, a "curio," "queer," "one of those dress- reform cranks." Some took me for Dr.

Mary Walker. None regarded me from a common-sense point of view. They thought I was shameless. They directed Bhy, stolen glances at me. They were aghast! alas, for my sex! They did could how perfectly comfortable my costume was.

No cumbersome skirt Interfered with my movements, catching up the ellme and the slush of wet street crossings and snow-covered pavements. My stride free and long and confident, and I never before realized the ease and satisfaction of walking as nature intended women and men should walk. I did not halt tremblingly on the curbstone, as do my benighted sisters, in tak- pg a street car, and, with one band rest- under the elbow of some big bluecoat the other holding their dress out amble tjmidjy tp plat; THE WORLD REPORTER IN DRESS-REFORM COSTUflE. oy. Any woman can do the same if she but discard her skirt.

THE TRIP TO BOSTON. Last Sunday I rode to the Grand Central Depot In a Fourth avenue car. I took the train there for Boston and rode in a Wagner drawing-room car. I created a sensation on that train. The colored porters grinned in a way that convinced me that I was the first woman who had ever gone over the road In a divided skirt.

The passengers, the male portion of them at least, regarded me with respectful curiosity. They dropped their newspapers and novels and studied my attire. You can't phaze the average New York even by a new wrinkle In female costume. The men were neither shocked nor surprised nor staggered. They were interested.

So them. Two middle-aged men, solid men of affairs I judged them to be, began to talk. "That's the latest agony In a woman's walking dress," said one In a semi- whisper. "Don't she look out of sight?" said his neighbor. "Hang me If I don't like It." "That's what the women will all have to come to one of these days.

That's a good bit of cloth in that get-up, isn't It? And it fits her well, too." The bell boys In the Hotel Thorndlke, In Boston, almost fell off their chairs when I entered. They tumbled over one an- other in their eagerness to make themselves useful. The clerk was impressed, but was too true a Bostonian to show any emotion. Nevertheless, I fancied he wanted to laugh. And yet Boston Is full of "dress-reform cranks," and he must have seen them many a time.

WITH THE.BOSTON "CRANKS." One of the foremost of thfcse "cranks" is Mrs. B. O. Flower, wife of the editor of the Arena. With them I had an engagement, and was warmly welcomed at their beautiful home in Brookline.

On the way out I encountered a crowd of small boys. One of them, after a critical survey of my attire, stepped up and said: "Say, missus, be yer dress tucked up What Causes Pimples? Clogging of tho pores or mouths of tho sebaceous glands with sobum or oily matter. Tho plug of aebum In tho centre of the pimple Is called a blackhead, grub or comcdone. Nature will not allow the clogging of the pores to continue long, hence Inflammation, pain, swelling nnd redness, latei pus or matter forms, breaks or Is opened, tin plug comes out and tho pore Is once more free. There aro thousands of these pores In tho face alone, any one of which la liable to become clogged by neglect or disease.

What Cures Pimples The only reliable preventive and cure, wnen not due to a constitutional humor. Is Cuticura Soap. It contains a mild proportion of CUTICURA, tho great Sliln Cure, which enables Ittodissolvo tho sebaceous or oily matter as It forms at the mouths of the porea. It stimulates the sluggish glands and tubes to healthy activity, reduces Inflammation, soothes and heals Irritated and roughened surfaces and restores the skin to Its original purity. This Is the secret of Us wonderful success.

For bad complexions, red, rough hands and shapeless nails, dry, thin and failing hair, scaly and Irrltuturl scalps and elmplo baby blemishes It ia wonderful. It Is preserving, purifying and beautifying to a degree hitherto unknown among remedies for tho skin and complexion. Kale great rr than tho combined sales of all other skin and complexion soaps. Kohl throughout tho world, FoTTKit AND Cnicu. COUP.

Bole Proprietors, Boston. Women full of pains, aches and weaknesses find comfort, strength and renewed vitality in Cuticura Piaster, the first nnd only pain-killing, nerve-strengthening plaster when all-else faiis. or be them trousers yer cot on?" "Trousers, answered. "How do you like "iiully," he replied, after some heslta- Mrs. Flower and Editor Flower, as of the movement for dress ru- orm, have agitated the dry-bones of the lub in a way that will not soon he forgotten They have espoused the cause order t.i win and have made many unvi-ru.

ho Arena Is (he orfan of the (.101 m. and Its vigorous chiunulonshiu iull national attention, called, FIFTH AVENUE, ST. Spring Tailor Made Suits, Silk Lined, Velvet Coats and Gapes, In Whlto Venetian I.M.C* RIM! fliio Cnt Jet, '35. Bar. gains in Sealskin, Persian and Mink Coats and Capes.

Our trademark in every garment is a lasting guarantee, Pay Little, little by little." THAT IS OUR CKTCDIT SYSTEM BK- DUCED TO A MOTTO. HEM IS ANOTHER OP OtTB, 8AY- TERSELY EXPRESSED FACT KNOWN TO EVERY WOMAN IN THIS PART OF THE WORLD: A CASH IH ENOUGH AT LlTTMi'S." EVERY WELL-INFORMED WOMAN ALSO KNOWS THAT AT THIS STORE 8 AND WKST I.ITJI'BT. is TO HE FOUND THE LARGEST ASSORTMENT OF STYLISH FURNITURE, CAWKTS, KUOS, TO BE FOUND JN TUB MK- TIlOl'OLIS. IIOUH1! PURMHIIKKM. 3 AND 5 WEST '4TH ST.

8 EAST 142 ST. 4 DOORS EAST OP 5THAVE. Having from Mr. tt John.on the eood-wlll oftho Retail established In 185Jt and conducted by him daring; the la ycara at 8 Eont 14th be to Btate that ire IIUTO reorganized th various Departments, and mnde exten alterations nnd Improvement throughout the entire store, which ens toirers will be prompt to appreciate. It Is our determination to KEEP THE ICIOOT GOODS AND SKLL THEM AT THE JtlGIIT PRICES In ench a our reincctlve Depnrtments, which ei brux-c i Millinery, Cloaks nnd Sultn, Trimmings, Lncelt, IClbbons, SIlkM, Velvets, Gloves, Handkerchiefs, Underwear, Corsets, Hoslt-ry, Notions, Art Embroidery Infants' Outfits, Umbrellas, Goods.

ho consciousness that I was a ploneor cause which alms to secure the i and freedom of my This courage and enthusiasm did well enough or the tieclu.slfjn of my own room, but as sm- stylos it, Mrs. Flower said: MltK. FLOW10R IS nil occasions possible seem to really -p so little that I nm more philosophical It than I used to be. Tile time is ipe for the change, and social condl- lons have never been better for If but till 1 have Riven up the hope of rushing .1 through, and am now patiently wait- Ing for the reform to come about bv ner- sistent and unceasing efforts." "Do you wear the knickerbockers all the time out of doom?" 1 asked. yn-V she answered, enthusiastically.

I feel so comfortable In them that I haven't the courage to go back to the old drawing skirts; and I nnd that the less conscious 1 can make myself feel about the looks of my suit the less apt I am to attract undue attention. People do not stare so hard when one caji manage to carry herself as though it were a mutter of course to be dressed In the national gown "I am a great believer In matter, you know," she continued, ed, with a smile, "and feel so llRht and airy when I don my reform dress that I am half Inclined to believe In the Christian Scientist who says that eventually the preponderance of rnUjrl over matter win be Ing to have my dinner sent to my room taking Its place. But I smothered my fears and boldly entered the dining-room. The room was crowded. The head waiter.

In a spirit of pure maliciousness, 1 am convinced, marched me to the further end of the long dining-room, and with a great show of attention seated me at a large centre table by myself. I screwed up my courage to the sticking point and ordered and ate my dinner bofora the concentrated glances of a hundred or more searching A VISIT OP INSPECTION FROM FORMER PATHONS AND THE PUBLIC IN QENKIIAL IS RESPECTFULLY INVITED. Ceo. B.JOHNSON (Siiccesnor to James G. Importer nnd Retailer, R.I till STREP.

T. (4 doors east of Bth Ave. eyes. IT IS NOT A PAD. great th of rnUji at to!) -111 be able to fly successfully we shall have but to imagine' that we possess whips." HER DRiaSS-RBFORM SUIT.

I asked to see the dresses that nave her such inspiration. Filled with enthusiasm for her subject, she led the way to the music-room, where she left me for a row moments. She reappeared in one of the daintiest conceptions of the "Boston Dress," constating of brown camel'ji-hair trousers, a brown soft surah silk sash, tied In front, and a brown velvet waist, trimmed with gold lace and Bold braid, with vest and cuffs of while silk embrlodered In gold. For outdoor wear there was a brown velvet Tarn O'Shanter. A long sealskin coat completed this charming toilet.

This was the first of a series of a dozen or more changes of costume which she presented for my Inspection. The general plan and cut of the garments were a.hout the same, but It was demonstrated that there was scope for great variation In details. The cost of the reform dress, she explained, averages the same as the dress now In vogue, about an eo.ua! quantity of material being used, and a similar amount of skill demanded In the fashioning. The dresses I saw were Intended for winter use, but the garments for summer were designed in the same lines and made of lighter material, such as silk, alpaca and light-weight cloths, over one union suit of silk underwear. LIKES ITS FREEDOM.

Another of the Boston dress reformers whom I visited Is Dr. Emily Bruce, who has a large practice in the Chelsea district, and who Is one of the Executive Committee of the Boston Homoeopathic Society, She received me In a very pretty gray cloth "Rational" suit, trimmed about the waist with cut-steel passementerie. I found her very much in earnest on the subject of the dress reform, not only for the good of womankind In general, but particularly for the comfort and convenience of the nurses In the hospitals with which she is connected. She expatiated on the greater ease with which their duties might be performed In this light and convenient attire. She said that ever since she had This Boston dress reform Is not a fad.

It Is not a craze. Its dlsclplrs are not cranks. They are not mannish, or man- Rullnely minded. They arc as sweetly womanly as women anywhere. To hear them discourse upon the advantages of the new style of costume one la Impressed far more by their enthusiasm for Its beauty and gracefulness than by their enumeration of Its practical utility.

Thoy are logical, too. One feelH after listening a while to them that If a Greek goddess wls'hed to walk alonM' Fifth avenue on a cool day sue would choose such a costume as theirs; nay more, a little Investigation Is almost sure to convince you that tho dress, if given a fair chance, would cause the p'Incherl-ln vlnllm of the modern dressmaker to gradually acquire the proportions of a sculptured masterpiece by Praxiteles. A listener Is all the more Inclined to become a convert If she Is wearing the new dress while listening to a recital of Its merits, for there Is a glorious reeling of freedom, HphtmiHS and comfort, without the slljflitnst Huggestlon of the horrible suspicion of "rlo'vdlneHS," which is the bane of every woman who cares about her appearance. DowdJness Is what the reformers are continually plea-ding- against. Their text Is beauty, beauty, beauty always, for this term properly Includess the highest utility and appropriateness.

FOE LADY BICYCLISTS. The woman bicyclists bave already adopted It, or something very like It, as the uniform of their favorite recreation, and It has long ceased to excite remark when Its wearer skims past on a wheel. The next step will be for the bicyclist to appear on the streets unmounted among the other pedestrians. In Paris they have long since passed the squeamish stage of this dress modification. The accepted bicycle costume there Is much more radical In Us departure from ordinary street wear than anything the people of this country are likely to favor.

In mountaineering and hunting English and French ladles wear a dress that reveals more than does the Syrian costume that is now appearing here and there In this country. To quote the words of Dr. Emily A. Bruce; "More women die annually In our country from the effects of faulty dressing than from all contagious diseases combined, and the Invalids from this cause alone fprm a great host that no man can number. This statement Is certainly startling, and may seem to the uninitiated Incredible, hut experience as a physician has forced upon me the conviction of Its truth." WOMEN AHE INTERESTED.

The only dressmaker who has been able to accomplish any satisfactory results in the matter of patterns Is Mrs. Hutchlnson, formerly or New York, but now of Boston, -who won the medal for excellence at the American Institute Fair In 1877 for different kinds of hygienic underwear for women. She has received orders for nearly three dozen of woman's apparel should rather than merely accompany any en largement of her field of intellectual anc physical effort. When listening to the catalogue of ills that follow in the train of tight lacing, constricted limbs anc dragging, over-weighty skirts, the won dor grows and Increases that there tihouUl still he found In Caucasian clvlll- nation any being without some physlca deformity as the result of the fashionable folly of unwise progenitors. "The pulpit has thundered again anc again during past centuries at the way in which men and women have defacec and caricatured the noble forms with which they have been endowed by nature.

Hut fashion has usually beer stronger than religion. The fear of be Ing considered cranks by contemporaries has been stronger than the dread of ni eternity of suffering In the hereafter and the follies have usually been per slsterl In until some new foolishness- has drawn forth another anathema. "This shows us how; great Is the. courage of any one who attempts to stem of the raiment madness tha wo call points out the-way to im feminine and attractive wlthou sacrificing the hea.lth and beauty of the present and future generations. DitKSS AS A BEAUTIFIER.

"The Inherent and fatal weakness of most attempts at dress reform Is that they neglect the element of beauty In the effort to attain utility. 'Woman's ambition Is to be beautiful, for that secures both admiration and anc any so-called reform that Ignores this funda.mental principle of woman's nature must deservedly fall. Even the old lawgiver, in laying- down the stern life rules for the Spartans, decreed that the robes of the women should be fashioned and slashed In certain ways that would give ample play for coquet- tlshnesa and the challenging of the admiration of the other sex. "We have had attempts at dress reform that appeared to despise beauty. '1 he Puritan dress began In such a spirit but before long the feminine instinct asserted Itself and the Puritan costume aconlrcd a beauty of Its own.

"The Quaker dress Is another Instance of utility Ignoring beauty. But the Friends make but few converts, and latterly are not able to impose their distinctive habiliments on the younger members of their sect, who nnd that rlrab and neutral tints soberly cut do not satisfy the artistic yearnings of their souls. BLOOMERISM. ijuc nuu uruci" J.ui iiciii i LIU cc become interested in the subject she had lot the "Boston Rational" dress, and since St patients and had made the article on dress reform appeared In the a great many converts. She, with Mrs.

Flower and Miss Laura Lee, very bravely visited the World's Fair wearing the Boston Rational dress. WILL WEAR NO OTHER. Miss Laura Lee, the young portrait painter, received me In her studio costume. The walls of the studio were covered with crayon life studies of the figure, finish ire, and on several large easels ed life-sized portraits. Miss human fi Lee is.

one of the most independent workers in the dress-reform movement. She fearlessly -wears the costume whenever and wherever she pleases. When asked what the male members of her family thought about the movement she laughingly replied that her brother was so much Interested and so proud of her Independence thaLhe refused to go i wear tEe with February number of the Arena, wherein she is spoken of aa the inventor of patterns for this costume, she has received at least one hundred a week making inquiries and desiring directions as to the fashioning of the suits. WHERE DRESS REFORM BEGAN. Dress reform Is no new thing.

It has been talked of for no radical movement years, towards But the result has been instituted until recently. The argument of the dress reformers and a history of the various attempts to popularize a new style of" dress are given in an address before the National Council of Women at the World's Fair. A part of this address follows; "Of the many ramlfactlons of the earnest movement now on toot for the advancement of womankind, not the least about brtn important IB that relating to her dress.Tabusfl iheods-'o "Bloomerlsm wa.s a further and perhaps a more philosophical attempt to Introduce utility and fitness into the design of the everyday apparel of the nlvlllzed wonrnn. The dress was convenient and well suited to any one leading an active life. Its promoters were Intellectual and enthusiastic.

It certainly was a vast improvement over the crinoline and other monstrosities that prevailed about the time of Its advent. One would have Imagined that the weaker sex would have hailed with joy the prospect of a release from their cace-llke Impediments, "But no. The few brave women who attempted to lead the way had no following. They were thirty years ahead of their time. Their sisters could not look and wish.

The tight hand of fash- Ion held them. Even If their bodies yearned for the fear of social ostracism, the dread of being considered 'advanced' or queer by their friends prevented their doing more than gaze at the promised land from afar. THE CRINOLINE. "The 'bloomer' and the crinoline were snuffed out by ridicule In the same decade. But they expired in a different manner.

The foolish crinoline did not yield up the ghost until it had lived Its full span. It had Imposed its inconvenient bulbousness upon every woman who Is influenced by the changing modes. Caricaturists lampooned It continually without shortening Us existence. It ran Its course. "The brave, sensible, convenient, beautiful 'bloomer' was not allowed to ev nut forth a tender shoot, i OILCLOTHS.

I4c, UP. LINOLEUMS, 28c, CARPETS AI.Ii CARPETS OVER SOc. YD. MADE, I.AID AND LINED FREENEXT WEEK. ninqnettos 85o.

yj, Kemilar 81.OO Jtruasels OOo. yd. Best All-Wonl Inaruinn 66e. Oood Ingrains 10c. TRUESDELL, SPRETER 8th Ave.

and 24th St. is as It should be. We who fought 'Irst battle do not repine at victory's tardy We were ahead of our age and generation." MEG MERRILIES. YES, SHE HAD 'EM ON. A Pair, if It Is a Pair, of DivUod Skirts Grouses City Hall Park.

(From Friday Morning's Sun.) A pretty woman came near occaslon- ng a blockade In the City Kail plaza lust before 6 o'clock last evening, Hun- ilreds turned to look at her, and every one e.lse turned to ascertain what the were looking at all who a morhent before had their faces turned Brooklynward were faced to the right- about. "Just a bit bow-legged," was the critical observation of a fashionably clad young man who had grown hollow- chested under the weight of a big bunch of violets. "Bad form," was the sententious reply )f the young man's mlddie-aged compan- on, deliberately given after a survey of the object of his criticism over his eye-glasses. "I don't know. Pretty trim," responded youth.

"Ankle well turned. Nothing he matter with'that." "Oh, it wasn't that, dear boy; not that, you know. It seems deucedly bad form, hough, to wear riding trousers on a romenade." A group of giggling Brooklyn girls, who iad been looking, stuffed their handker- Into their mouths and started or the bridge. The young lady who occasioned all this and possessed sufficient at- raction td stop the stream of hungry ersons hurrying to the big boarding- iouse over the bridge, was clad In. the itest dress-reform style in a suit of dark -naterial.

A dark derby hat surmounted er pert little head. A fashionable coat, with wide flowing skirts reaching down to the knees, served to hide part a it can be called a ivided skirts. These latter were really Ittle better than Turkish trousers with 'olumlnous legs. They, were caught up the knee and hung In graceful olds, concealing the calf to the top of cat-flttlng high gaiter boots. As he of he violets remarked, the ankles dls- layed were faultless; but his other crltl- Ism, reflecting on the parallelism of the ady's walking apparatus, seemed equally ust, for the skirts seemed to be rather more divided than need be.

She carried long-handled umbrella jauntily in her eft hand, and, with long, swinging trldes, made her way to Broadway, trhere she was lost in the crowd. Variations of Beauty. (From the Philadelphia Record.) A Philadelphia genre painter, who lakes Ideal female heads a specialty, as noticed In his dally study of nature long Chestnut street that there are certain days when nothing but ugliness la ncountered. and, again, there are days hen the number of beauties abroad is A killing frost nipped it ere the seed simply bewildering, not to say surfeiting, had germinated. Civilization was not He has tried to account for this by con- ready for it.

The few women who ren- ditions of atmosphere, the east wind be- gretfully they gave up the contest with a sigh, ns they thought of the lost freedom of movement they had surrendered. AHEAD OF ITS TIME. "As Lucy Stone recently said, the bloomer was abandoned, not because of any fault in the garment Itself. The bloomer costume was excellent. It did not fatigue us.

When we undressed, we felt no great sense of relief, as we do when we put off these heavy garments. We could walk In the streets without getting our clothing all mud, and come home without having great heavy skirts to brush. We could go upstairs without stepping on ourselves, and go downstairs without being stepped on. Put, useful as the bloomer was, the ridicule of the world killed it. "It suffered the usual fate of anything that Is forty years ahead of its lime.

We laid it aside with regret, but the freedom we had gained for our feet did not make amends, for the torment of MATTINGS. Great sale next week In New 2.000 rolls at prices never before quoted. Selections cnn be maao NOW and poods delivered when Mve-dollar purchases delivered tite within 100 miles. Seamlcai. Roll, 82.49, $2.98 or To.

yd. or Oc. yd. ENGLISH AND SCOTCH LINOLEUMS OILCLOTHS. CONTINUATION 8AL.B of our recent purchase of a manufacturer's oot- put of 50,000 yards In these goods, bonght for cash at half price, and being: retailed accorolnglj we will sell struck it!" was the exclamation.

"It's the days when I am thinking of getting married that the beauties all stay at home." "No wonder," was the quiet re- Joinder. Foreign Uollec in America. (From the Boston Transcript.) It appears altogether likely that there will be an American branch of the ones puissant Colonna family, as well as an American branch of the Bonaparte (am- lly, for the Princess Colonna will hardly care to take her boys back to with the certainty of losing them If does so. Let us all hope that the Air. can Colonnas will turn out as well aa'tho- Baltimore Bonapartea have whom there Is no princely these descendants of an Ita" our spirit, and we had to go back into house grow up and remain.

In lane skirts. Times have changed since States they will not.be pifeges, 1 then. Now dress reform can Be talked!.