The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-11-15
SERIAL SyVIRT FRONTS.
An Amazing Invention Lately Patented by a
Pennsylvania.
Philadelphia Times.

Philadelphia Times,
IF anybody thinks that the inventive genius
of the American people is on the wane he's hope
lessly left, that's all, " remarked one of the lead
ing patent lawyers of Philadelphia yesterday
afternoon as he sat with his feet on the office
table and smoked a patent Connecticut cigar
warranted to deceive the most expert judge of
Havana tobacco. James" he continued, ad-
dressing the Office boy, bring me that package
that came from Washington yesterday"
The lad produced a large paper parcel, from
which the lawyer took what was to all appear
ances an ordinary colored shirt, being apparently
of white linen, with a small design in the form
of a horseshoe and jockey cap stamped all over
the bosom and cuffs.
II have just taken out a patent on this for a
man in Lackawanna county. who calls it the Ex-
celsior Patent Paper Shirt and Novelette,. "
Here the speaker inserted his thumb nail at the
bottom of the shirt bosom and proceeded to tear
off a layer of paper of which the shirt was made.
He then tore off another layer, and then another
and another, until six separate sheets in the
shape of the bosom lay on the table, and he still
held what looked like the original shirt in his
hand. you see it's a really remarkable idea.
Here is this shirt, made of very tough paper,
that won't tear without a good deal of pressure,
and the bosom is made up of seven layers, one
for each day in the week, if a man chooses to be
lavish with his linen, or, if he like to be an
out-and-out swell, he can change half a dozen
times a day. No, on this sample all the fronts
are the same, but they will be made in all sorts
or STYLES, so CnaU a IellOW can wear tnlS morse
shoe figure if he wants to go to Coney Island to
the races, or a crossed baseball bat design if he
is going out to see the Philadelphia play the
Athletic, or a neat little design in dots or bars,
or something of that sort, if he is going off with
his girl to Atlantic City or the matinee. Thatl
be all fixed by giving a card with each shirt
telling the pattern on each of the seven fronts,
which will be numbered from one to seven.
Enough collars and cuffs will go with each shirt
for the seven fronts, and the whole outfit will be
sold for the small sum of fifty cents for the
assorted patterns and thirty-five cents for the
white. Why, it's the biggest thing that has
been struck since the telephone was patented. "
But what about the novelette, part of the
schemeF'
"Ah, l had forgotten to show you; see this, >
and the lawyer handed over one Of the t~orn-off
shirt-fronts, on the back of which was printed in
fine typo one CHAPTER of a story entitled, '"The
Phantom Jockey, a Romance of Sheepshead
Bay" There you are, chapter l of a sporting
novelette,, and it's continued and finished on the
other six fronts. OF course, sometimes you will
run across the same yarn twice on two shirts,
but some thousands of different stories will be
printed, and the lots made up so as to give each
city and town as few duplicates as possible.
Anyhow, the card will tell you what story is on
the shirt, and you can be careful not to buy the
ested in the story when they rip off Mondays
front that they viii tear the whole week off, so
as to learn the hero's fate. but that will be all
the better, and is, indeed, part of the scheme in
printing them all. Oh, | tell you this invention
is going to be a great go, and, aside from its
other virtues, will do more toward driving the
Chinese laundrymen back to their native land
than all the political howls that ever We're
heard"