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In
years past, school always started after Labor Day. Now it starts
in late August. As the students return to school they seem most
interested in what may have changed during the months they were
on summer vacation.
Berenice
Tuttle who graduated in the class of '97(1897 that is!) kept a diary
of her high school years from which the following newspaper article
was extracted. During the Fall of 1896 a Rainy Day club was formed
in the high school. In the Spring of 1898 this club was reorganized
by some 60 young women of Rutland. On March 25, 1898 the New
York World carried the following story about a rebellion in
Rutland by the members of this young ladies group:
Short
Skirts Awake Civil Strife in the Staid City of Rutland "It
all began one muggy day last fall when the pretty assistant preceptress
at the high school wandered in to take charge of her classes in
a close fitting frock of dark blue, which ended abruptly an inch
or two above the ankle. Now, all New England shudders at the sight
of an ankle!" The shock of the professor was very apparent,
but he was reluctant to confront the woman, noting the "look
on her face". She was tired of the long skirts dragging through
the mud and holding water, causing many to catch colds and even
pneumonia. The club members grew from one to six in a week. Rutland's
young women retired to the privacy of their rooms only to come forth
with shorter skirts. The scandal spread. Reports of short skirts
met on highways set the town agog. The Mothers' Meeting and Home
Sewing Circle took immediate steps to suppress this depravity in
their midst. "Not a daughter of mine shall appear in such immodest
dress," declared one Mayflower Dame in great heat. "Never!"
echoed the mothers who went forward to fight. The degenerate priscillas
[apparently a name for rebellious girls] flaunted their short skirts
in the very teeth of their enraged parents. Some parents tried to
drag their daughters from the street by force and tugs of war were
a common sight on Rutland streets. Meanwhile the Rainy Day Club
members gathered statistics to prove that the shorter skirts significantly
reduced the occurrence of colds among members.
"Pneumonia
skirts" are now a thing of the past. The Rainy Day Club had
won the battle. Among the members of the rebellion were many daughters
of Rutland's finest families: May Sawyer, daughter of the President
of the Board of Aldermen, Aida Skelles, Lucy Cheney and Helen Smith.
"Their crowning glory is the fact that they are besieged with
letters from all over New England. Other 'new women' priscillas
are about to follow in their wake."
Students
today are not afraid to express their independence. Should the students
of 1898 be considered belligerent or just leaders in making life
better for all? As a high school graduate of 1897, Berenice Tuttle
notes that "it seems hardly necessary to say that any truth
is hard to find in this article…” Was Berenice right or was there
more truth to the story than she wanted to admit? Why would she
save it in her diary? Wasn't it in the fall of 1896 that the club
originated?
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