Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1879-08-07
The Human shirt.

HThe Human Shirt.
New York Paperl
1t is manifest that the human shirt
has passed through a series of impor-
tant notifications. The shirt of the
stone age did not open-in the sense
that the contemporaneous shirt opens
either in front or behind. 1t had
simply large hole for the reception
of the head and neck, and was devoid
of either studs or buttons. Alta later
period the shirt developed an opening
in front, and little later studs where
with to close this opening This style
of shirt was remarkably persistent,
and, in fact, became extinct at about
the same time as the great ark of New
foundland, or, in other words, as late
as the beginning of the present CEN
tury. In the existing shirt, which is
one of the most widely diffused of the
human garments, the front opening is
closed, and an opening in the back has
taken its place. Studs, which are now
useless, exist merely in a rudimentary
form, and what was once the horn but
ton of the stuG, is now merely a frail
growth of spiral wire. What has pro.
duced these successive developments
is one of the most interesting inquiries
which the Darwinian investigation can
undertake.
The FIRST appearance Of the shirt
with the opening in front was contem-
porary, according to paleontologists,
with the first efforts of man to navi-
rate the water. In the stone age,
boats of any kind, from logs up to
Cunard steamers, were unknown, but,
in course of time man began to paddle
across rivers; say from Albany to New
YORK ON the simple log now in use
among the Australians. Naturally,
Le frequently got very wet, and hence
II became an object to him to remove
his shirt with ease and rapidity.
Hence the front opening was devel-
oned substantially as it appears IN the
shirts of the period immediately pre-
ceding the stone age.
# Is agreed by all the anthrOpolo-
o;sts that the iron age, or the age when
Al irons came into use as domestic
rroa,,o1s m%s succeeded the stone age: The
shirt bosom naturally followed the
introduc n;o5 i oo,'iJ oD
have nossessed a fat iron without
wishing TO iron something with It, and
the shirt bosom was developed to sup
ply the want. About the same tlmS ne
studs appeared. They were neeIea ae ~ Gu
to keep the shirt bosom close,%c' ~ ;ns;do S;la'
the owner could shut himself inslue o
of it with a view to privacy, anu Sene hor'
the device of people among ~non' aon
,,eedles and thread, and, as as o,. oUn-
sequence, buttons were uhknOm and
Thus we can trace by successive eeaU
we'll de fired steps the development
the rude Uniformed shirt OF the ; tone
age which ,,as usually made OF tbe
coarse cloths manufactured OF mail
bags and cotton bales, until the shirt
with an opening in frGnt and ironed
bosom and three studs-in short, the
species classified by Western psleon-
tolOgists under the name billed shtft" "
became the ruling type.
One of our most profound washer
women, who has devoted lifetime to
the study Of shirts, is of the opinion
that the opening at the back of the
neck was first developed either in
Scotland, at about the period when
the Duke of Argyle erected his
famous posts, or in America soon
after the early colonists made the
acquaintance of the mosquito This
theory is ingenious aud plausible, but
it is open to the objection that it is
not true. The modern species OF
shirts is older than the Duke of
Argyle's posts or the early settlement
Of America. Doubtless it was found
to be peculiarly adapted for Scottish
and mosquito purposes, and its rapid
increase may very possibly have been
effected by cOunter-irritant consider
ations, but the latter were not the
cause of the great change which we
are now investigating. We can, how
ever, confidently assert that this
change took place in this country
soon after its settlement, and in Eng
land soon after the passage of the first
great reform bill. That is to say, it
took place when demagogues began to
bid for the popular vote. Now, the
demagogue, with nicely ironed shirt
bosom could not with any plausibility
represent himself as a plain working
man. In order TO do this it was nee
essary that he should wear shirt
bosom devoid Of starch and made Of
coarse materials. Hence, it occurred
70 him that were he to wear his shirt
wrong side before, and cut o slip in i