Democratic Sentinel, Volume 19, Number 25, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 June 1895 — DON’T DRESS LIKE WOMEN, [ARTICLE]

DON’T DRESS LIKE WOMEN,

Even If, to Be Different, You Have to Put On Bkirts. Much comment has been caused during the week among bicyclists and in religious circles by the sermon of Rev. Kittredge Wheeler, pastor of the Fourth Baptist Church, Chicago. The words that aroused the discussion were: “In discussing this subject I shall hardly venture to touch upon the bicycle costume, for the reason that if I were addressing a company of cyclists in the latest and most up-to-date uniform I would be in great doubt as to the sex of my audience. I will, however, venture a single suggestion to wheelmen who are males, and not wheelmen who are females. “Here is the suggestion. See to it that your costume is as masculine as possible. Distinguish and emphasize your sex in some way. Wear a mustache, let your beard grow, or sew upon the back of your costume three big, red, capital letters, M-A-N. “You have no right to appear on the streets in a costume worn by females. If there be only two costumes suitable for bicycle riding, the single, closed skirt and the knickerbockers, I say to the men, ‘Be gallant, let the women have the choice, and if they take the knickerbockers, do you take what is left. Be a man and put on the skirt.’ Make it universal and let the public understand it. This will distinguish the sex on the wheel. Remember, I am speaking only to men. Never dress like a woman, not even on the wheel.”