ABSTRACT
April 16th, 1895. an article was published in the Seneca County Courier, in which the writer, a man, inveighed against the current fashion, and advocated the adoption of the Turkish costume as one eminently suitable and becoming to women; and about the same date, oddly enough, a certain Mrs. Elizabeth Smith-Miller went to visit a cousin, named Stanton, at Seneca Falls, and electrified the townsfolk by appearing in a dress which consisted of a short skirt over full trousers gathered at the ankles, and worn with an ordinary bodice. 'We are told that the first time Mrs. Bloomer saw the stranger in this novel garb she was much amused and not a little shocked; but a few days passed, and then the cousin, Mrs. Cady Stanton, was persuaded to don similar attire; and yet a week or two later, Mrs. Bloomer herself, convinced against her will of the -comfort and freedom to be derived from such a change, joined the ranks of the reforming sisterhood. Her first reform suit was, we learn, made entirely of figured silk, skirt and trousers alike, and evidently nothing was further from her mind than the idea that in adopting it she would set the fashion or gain personal notoriety.
