Riot Girls

You never know what you’ll find in the old Gazette archives. This article comes from the March 16, 1910 edition of The Galena Daily Gazette. You can take away their freedom, but don’t mess with their tooth powder and hair ribbons!

For a link to the growing archive of historical Galena newspapers, go to The Galena Foundation.

GIRL RIOTERS ARE STOPPED
Ban on Hair Ribbons Causes Outbreak in Iowa Industrial School.

Mitchellville, la., March 16.—
Because the superintendent, Miss Hattie Garison, refused to allow them to wear hair ribbons or keep tooth powder, for fear they would put it on their faces, thirty-eight girls in the state reformatory school started a riot early yesterday and soon had the four hundred girls in the school rioting, breaking windows, throwing bricks at Miss Garison and marching in procession, singing, “Down in Jungle Town.” Mildred Trodot, while trying to escape from a third-story window with a rope made of sheets, fell and fractured her skull, but will recover.

Miss Garison turned in a riot call and Sheriff Ness went to the scene with a squad of deputies. With cries of “Ah! there boys!” and “Oh, you kid,” the girls quited down and allowed Judges Wade and Robinson, of
the state board of control, to make an investigation.

If the girls can have their hair ribbons and tooth powder and receive letters, they promised to be good.
Otherwise, on with the dance.