California Bloomer

DESCRIPTION: Singer describes Miss Ella, an educated female gold-miner who has "taken two degrees" and wears bloomers to show her knees. He'll leave for the States soon. Cho: "Take your time, Miss Ella, do And I will rock the cradle Give the ore all to you"
AUTHOR: Words: Probably John A. Stone ("Old Put") (source: Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
EARLIEST DATE: 1855 (Put's Original California Songster)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Singer describes Miss Ella, an educated female gold-miner who has "taken two degrees" and wears bloomers so that she can show her knees. He describes her crossing the plains and washing her feet in a brook; she has also done some successful panning for gold dust. He says he'll leave for the States as soon as he can. Cho: ."..Take your time, Miss Ella, do/And I will rock the cradle/Give the ore all to you"
KEYWORDS: return travel clothes mining work worker
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1849 - California gold rush begins
FOUND IN: US(SW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, p. 103, "California Bloomer" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Logan English, "California Bloomer" (on LEnglish02)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Lucy Long (I)" (rune)
cf. "Lucy Long (II)" (tune)
NOTES [132 words]: In the late 1840s Amelia J. Bloomer designed the loose trousers, gathered at the knees, that immediately were called "bloomers." They were widely popular among young women, whom it freed up to be far more physically active than they could be in the long dresses of the time. Men viewed them with alarm and derision, calling the women who wore them "bloomer girls," not a complimentary term. - PJS
The song says "Miss Ella, she is twenty-nine." It should probably be noted that, in the 1850s, that makes her very much an old maid -- and the fact that she apparently hasn't had much luck with men even in the Gold Rush, where women were rare, clearly marks her down as even less desirable. In fact, at first reading of this song, I wondered if "Miss Ella" was actually a mule, not a woman. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: RcCalBlo

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