From The Lester S. Levy Collection of Sheet Music (or click for a PDF file):


THE BLOOMER'S COMPLAINT
[anonymous]
Philadelphia : A. Fiot, 1851.

1. Dear me, what a terrible clatter they raise,
Because that old gossip Dame Rumor
Declares, with her hands lifted up in amaze,
That I'm coming out as a Bloomer,
That I'm coming out as a Bloomer.
I wonder how often these men must be told
When a woman a notion once seizes,
However they ridicule, lecture or scold,
She'll do, after all, as she pleases,
She'll do, after all, as she pleases.

2. They know very well that their own fashions change
With each little change of the season,
But oh! it is "monstrous" and "dreadful" and "strange"
And "out of all manner of reason,"
And "out of all manner of reason,"
If we take a fancy to alter our dress,
And come out in style "à la Bloomer,"
To hear what an outcry they make, I confess,
Is putting me quite out of humor,
Is putting me quite out of humor.

3. I'll come out next week, with a wide Bloomer flat
Of a shape that I fancy will fright them.
I had not intended to go quite to that,
But I'll do it now, only to spite them,
But I'll do it now, only to spite them.
With my pants "à la Turque," and my skirts two feet long,
All fitting of course, most completely,
These grumblers shall own after all, they are wrong,
And that I, in a Bloomer, look sweetly,
And that I, in a Bloomer, look sweetly.