from the country neighborhood where I was reared, one given to dancing, had gone to Chicago and seen these bloomer-clad women, he would have thought the whole sex disgraced.  And I must admit I didn’t like the bloomer girl myself.  I can appreciate the Yankee farmer who lived between Boston and Wareham, Mass.  A young woman who lived in Boston had a friend in Wareham, and donning her bloomers she mounted her wheel and started for the village.  Passing several diverging points, and thinking possibly she had missed the right road, she decided to inquire at the next house.  Seeing the Yankee farmer at the front gate she rode up, dismounted and said:  “Sir, will you please tell me, is this the way to Wareham?”

The farmer, with eyes fixed upon the new garb, said:  “Miss, you’ll have to excuse me.  I can’t tell you, for I never saw anything like them before.”

I said our opinions are based upon schooling.  Let the man from the dancing community leave Chicago, go back to Kentucky, attend a country ball, see a young woman with low neck dress and short sleeves, in the arms of a man she never met before, and he thinks her the picture of propriety, as well as grace and beauty.  Yet the bloomer girl was completely clad from her chin to the soles of her feet while the other is so un-clad that when a woman, now noted for her great work among the unfortunate of New York City, was a society leader, and was passing through her library to her carriage one evening, her little son said:  “Mama, you are not going out on the street looking that way, are you?  Why, you are scarcely dressed at all.”  The mother realizing as never before, the immodesty of her attire, returned to her room, changed her apparel to what met the approval of her boy, and has never since worn a decollete gown.

Let a respectable woman in this town stand on a street corner to-morrow, and utter an oath; she would shock every one within sound of her voice.  A man can “cuss” to his satisfaction and, if not a church member, the community is not shocked.  Let a young woman seeking a position in a public school in one of our cities, call a member of the school board into a saloon and order beer set up for two; would she get the position?  Not much.  Not if the community found it out, or the remainder of the board who were slighted.  A man can invite a dozen men into a saloon, order drinks for the company, and thereby help to win the position he seeks.  In the city where I reside a young man can get drunk and howl like a wolf through the streets, yet if he has wealth and family influence, in ten days he can attend a social gathering of the best society.  Let a young woman step aside from the path of right and she is hurled to the depths of the low-land of vices.

Some years ago a young man died in our city whose family name was honored and whose father was wealthy.  The young man went the pace that kills and in the very morning of life died a victim to his vices.  A long line of carriages followed him to our beautiful cemetery, his pall bearers were from the leading families of the city; flowers covered his grave and the daily papers paid a tribute to the young man cut down before the river of life was half run.