566 PLAIN FACTS FOR OLD AND YOUNG 



"Without going into the consideration of the dress 

 of women in various parts of the world, it will be suffi- 

 cient if I confine what I have to say on the subject to 

 their apparel as worn at the present day. But it is 

 an important fact that in the earlier periods of the 

 history of the human race, there were no essential 

 points of difference in the dress of the two sexes, ex- 

 cept, perhaps, in the way of wearing the hair. Roman 

 men and women, for instance, wore nearly the same 

 kind of external garments. A plate in Planche's 'His- 

 tory of Costume' represents a group of Anglo-Saxon 

 men and women of the tenth century, and it is difficult, 

 if not impossible, to tell which of the figures represent 

 men and which women. The traditional fig-leaf was 

 the same for both sexes, and from it were evolved 

 skirts that varied but little in shape and general ap- 

 pearance, whether they concealed the nakedness of a 

 man or that of a woman. The differences that now 

 exist have been caused mainly by the revolt of man 

 from the inconvenience of long skirts, and the assump- 

 tion by him of a separate covering for each leg. What 

 he has gained in the facility with which he can run, 

 leap, climb trees, straddle a horse, row a boat, and do 

 the many other things that his occupations require of 

 him, he has certainly lost in grace and elegance. Trou- 

 sers are of oriental origin, and in the form of breeches 

 were worn by the ancient Gauls and Britons. They 

 went out of fashion, however, soon after the occupa- 

 tion by the Romans, and the gown took their place, or 

 rather reacquired its place, for both sexes. 



''So far as I know, the wearing of trousers by 

 women is a mere matter of convenience and esthetics 

 that they are perfectly competent to settle for them- 

 selves, and that they certainly will decide without in- 



