THE HOBBLE SKIRT.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXII, Issue 923, 26 November 1910, Page 4

THE HOBBLE SKIRT.

Everybody is telling stories of the hobble skirt placing the wearers in ridiculous predicaments as a rule. The most interesting adventure of a hobble skirt wearer that has come within my keu (writes “ Atlicus ” in the Leader) happened to a newlymarried lady who went on a Gippsland excursion with a small party. She and her husband started for a ramble in the bush, and were caught in a shower. The foolish woman was wearing her most hobbled skirt, and the rest of the picnic party were surprised half an hour later to see Newlywed returning, carrying his wife in his arms. There was a rush, everybody imagining an accident had happened. But the sad truth was soon told. Mrs Newlywed's skirt had shrunk after the shower, and she couldn’t walk a step. The same writer gives another funny story on the same subject. When the winds get into one of those loose skirts strapped about the wearer’s ankles, the dress inflates until the woman in possession looks like a new thing in airships. One morning, he says, a hapless lady, coming from a shop on Collins Street Hill with her arms full of purchases, struck a small whirlwind, and for quite a minute she was converted into a helpless balloon. At length she bad to discard her parcels in order to control the inflated skirt, whereat a rude street sweeper gasped: “ For ’eaven’s sake, lydie, don’t drop yer ballast!” The following poem puts the position in a nutshell ■

Mary had a little skirt, Tied tightly in a bow; And everywhere that Mary went, She simply couldn’t go!