The St. Charles herald. [volume] (Hahnville, La.) 1873-1993, 1885-11-28

The evolution OF clothes faStenings
was something like this: Thorns, fish
bones. strings, metal clasps, pins and
buttons, and the buttons did not come
until about the time Columbus dis
covered America. But buttons alone
| were not quite sufficient and it took
! our good ancestors two centuries
longer to invent the button-hole. That
is to say, buttons were first used en-
tirely for ornament, and it was not
until the close of Queen Elizabeth's
reign that the great convenience of
buttoning ones clothes, instead Of PIN
ming them or fastening them with
clasps, was discovered.
The ornamental purpose Of the but
ton is still in vogue in ladies' COSTUMES
and in mems survives in those two
helpless buttons on the back of their
coats. Some dreaming enthusiast has
calculated that if we would only forego
the use of those two buttons the amount
saved in a few years would pay the
national debt. or would found charit-
able institution that would provide for
everybody, substantially banishing pow
erty from the earth. But fashion de-
mands chat we should retain them,
and so the national debt must take
care of itself and the millennium still
delay its coming. Last came the self
fastening button, very recent, as we all
know, boon to bachelors and lone,
| lorn widowers. Time was when wife
was an Indispensable necessity to every
! gentleman for his buttons sake. Studs
| and self-fasteners have changed all
4 that, and now man need not marry
unless he wants to. Indeed, marry
ing man may be known by the buttons
| he wears. If he wears studs and self
| fasteners he is hopelessly independent.
If he still clings TO pearl buttons and
the art of sewing he is sure to marry
on the first opportunity.
Buttons are made of almost every
material and in every color There is
scarcely an article can be named, leav-
| ing out fats and such things, that can
not be turned into buttons and after
which the public does not run with
frantic eagerness. 1t has infinite vari-
atoms, and its fashions tread upon each
other in swift succession and crowd the
wearer. Their manufacture is enor-.
nous, our largest factories being at
Newark, N j., Waterbury, Conn, and
| Springfield and East Hampton, Mass.
! We import from Germany, France and
England buttons to the value of three
million dollars yearly.
The first manufacturer of buttons in
the United States was Samuel Willis
ston, of East Hampton, Mass. His
father, grandfather and great grand
father had been ministers in Connecti-
cut and Massachusetts, and he intended
to be one, but while studying for that
profession his eyes gave out and he
nearly lost their use. He gave up the
ministry, became country storekeeper
and married. His wife to help keep
the wolf from the door commenced to
cover by hand the wooden buttons of
the time, which met with quite ready
sale in the store. Behold how large a
matter little button maketh. The
STABILITY Of the article led to a study
of the subject and to the consideration
Of machinery as an aid to the business,
for your true Yankee will never do by
hand what he can get machine to do.
i One invention led to another, and to
the establishment of factory, con-
stantly charging, in which was made
more than half the buttons used in the
United States. Samuel Williston made
a large fortune in the button business,
and lived long and useful life, dying
in 1874, at the age of seventy nine.
During his life he founded the Willis
ton Seminary, at Easthampton, en-
i dowed two professorships in Amherst
4 College, built a church, which was
| twice burned down and rebuilt by
| him. giving during his life and be-
queathing at his death to these and
other charities, more than one million
five hundred thousand dollars. That
is what buttons did. Could anything
better be said about themP Observe,
too, it was the wife whose industry
selected the object which made the
fortune. # Mr.. Williston had remained
a bachelor and depended on self-fasten.
ers or studs, he would never have
been able to give million and hall
dollars in charity The moral lies OIL
the surface. Chicago Herald.