The Magnolia gazette. [volume] (Magnolia, Miss.) 1872-current, 1883-02-08
Changes in Guns.

seven hundred wives was denied the
delight OF seeing their liege lord decked
out in q clean shirt and collar. How the
dandies OF those days managed to look
respectable is a matter of melancholy
con, lecture. The history of the mod
ern cuf is startling confirmation of
Mr.. Darwin's theory of creation. 1t
was evolved from nothing What aw-
full and fantastic shapes it may yet as
sumo no man can tell. Fifty years ago
the cuff was as much curiosity as was
linen shirt fifty years before. The
gentlemen of the Revolution wore
rut1les or ruffs of lace or crimped linen
about their wrists. 1t was about thirty
years ago that the first linen cuff was
made. 1t was plain band of linen
sewed to the shirt sleeve and was fast
ened by an ordinary porcelain button.
Its use grew rapidly in public favor,
and in few years there appeared in
the market a cuff, buttoning separately
to the wristband. There had been still
no provision made for the olna-
mental button, but several years after
Gulf was made having in one end the
much-coveted hole, and from that day
the success of the invention was assured.
A piece of white linen was good thing,
but a piece of linen and chunk of gold,
and the first sleeve buttons were coined
of that precious metal, combining as
they did utility and beauty, comfort and
elegance, at once found their way into
permanent popular notice.
The linen cuff of to-day is as unlike
that of twenty years ago as is man and
the monkey. There are now sold by
the trade three classes of cuffs, respect
lively made of linen, percale and cellu-
loid. The celluloid cuff, when first it
made its appearance, created genu-
inc furore; but now it is worn as a
rule only by travelling statesmen, who
have TO do their washing on the fly, and
poor people in the summer time The
percale cuff, likewise once high in the
estimation of the wealthy and the
aesthetic, has gone into at least tenn
porary oblivion, although wholesale
iobbers say they find ready sales for
both the percale and celluloid cuffs in
the extreme South and West. The cuff
which laps over and buttons at one end
is now considered barbarous. The ultra
fashionable kind is the cuff which is
bound together by a link button. 1t
should be attached to the shirt.sleeve
by two delicate slips, extensions from
that part of the culf which a sailor
would call amidships" One reason
why the percale cufs went out of fash
ion was because they cost more than a
good linen article, and were not nearly
so decent in appearance. About fifteen
years ago the paper cuff, likewise the
paper collar, was held up to the admir-
ing gaze of consumers. Millions were
manufactured, and it was thought the
desideratum had at last been found, but
the paper cuff, like the percale, is now
only used in the South and in the ex-
treme West, around Galveston, and in
tie Black Hills. Ninc-tenths OF all the
cuffs sold in this country are Tanufact-
ured in Troy, N. Y. Some years ago
or at many were imported from En-
gland. Now none are brought across
the ocean. On the other hand, Ameri-
can cuffs are finding u large sale in
London and Paris.
Six years ago cuffs were made in two
or three pieces, and one style, in par
ticular, was about nine inches long, and
then doubled over to within half-inch
OF the starting-r oint. All of the cuffs
of to day are what is known rs four-ply
that is, they are made of four thick
nesses of linen, with the interlinings OF
cotton. All-linen Gu Is are but little
worn. They cost from sixty to seventy
i've cents per pai". and have not half
the capacity for holding starch and
keeping stif that the 'adulterated'
goodspo sess. There are three general
shapes in cuffs, square corners, round
corners and chopped-of corners. In
New York and Boston the round corners
are fashionable, in Philadelphia the
sTuare corners are all the go, and in
| Washington and baltimore one sees
nothing but the chopped cuffs.
In this city men like big cuff, as big
as they can get it. In New Orleans the
bon-ton wear dminutive Wristbands,
and out in the boundless West they
wear anything that happens to be handy,
from q dish-rag to pair of nippers.
The latter is the all-prevailing style in
some places in Colorado and New
Mexico. Then, again, there are what
ire known as single and double cuffs.
The former are now but little worn, and
never by fashionable people. Different
denominations wear different kinds oi
| cuffs. Quakers want small single Gu rs
that lap over and button at the end.
Actors wear big cuffs and largely patron
ize the gaudy percale with polka dots
and rainbow stripes, like bill-po tiers.
Ii is permissible to wear a tight-fttine
cuff in the winter. although the present
style favors a roomy one that will come
down cleverly over the wrist and vel
not stick in the coat-sleeve, like fai
man in an alley. None but fops weaI
their cuffs down TO their knuckfes. The
best distance is from an inch TO half an
inch. To vary much from this standard
is to display excessive modesty or un-
becoming loudness. A dirty cuff is a
thing to be washed and nottalked about.
-C6tc00O Herald