Evening capital. (Annapolis, Md.) 1884-1910, 1888-02-10
MEN WHO WEAR CoRSETS
MOI ALL AMERICANS, AS A FOR
EIGN PAPER INTIMATEs.

Englishmen and German Military Onacers
Wear Corsets-The Sorts OF Men Who
Resort to Bracing of This Nind-Three
Glasses of wearers.
An English newspaper recently pub
lished long article on the subject of stays
or corsets for men. The little information
the article contained was credited to an
American interviewer, and only American
men of fashion were accused of having
weakness for this feminine necessity. The
fact that many men wear corsets has been
known for some time, but the statement
that the habit is confined TO Americans is
entirely new and utterly false. 1t is and
always has been difficult to get any posi-
tive information ON this subject from the
persons who make the corsets or the men
who wear them. The former are reticent
from business point of view, while the
latter vehemently deny that they wear
stays because they are ashamed of it,
which is to their credit There is a large
business done in this line, not only in this
city, but in many foreign cities.
ENGLIsHMEN WEAR THEM.
Many Englishmen wear corsets, and
these gentlemen suffer more inconveni-
ence from this source, where they are far
from home, than from any other. The
places where men can buy corsets are
limited in number, and known only to a
few, who keep this knowledge to them
selves A stranger, therefore, has to rely
entirely upon his own resources. A well
known manufacturer of corsets on Broad
way was recently visited by dapper lit
tie Englishman who was only about five
feet taM and he carried a cane, and wore
a high silk hat a surprisingly tall collar,
red necktie and a pair of white leg
gings. He was not shy about his needs,
as an American would be, but mincing up
to a pretty young saleswoman, said:
t'Can l get corset here?"
''For your sister,"
sNot' exclaimed the young fellow, lift
ing his eyebrows in surprise; 'for my
self"
"You will please" said the young wo-
man, drawing herself up until she looked
seven feet tall, mot attempt to joke with
me- You will find the bookkeeper in the
office.n
The poor little dude would have been
panied IL it were possible, but as it was
not he was only astonished. He spoke to
the manager, and was informed in frigid
manner by that gentleman that the firm
had not yet found enough idiots in this
country to make it worth their while to
construct corsets with the front the same
shape as the back.
'sWell, can't you make one!" he asked
'sNo, sir, we cannot, and that settles
it."
! The firms that make corsets for men
have only one difficulty. 1t is that of pro-
curing clerk with tact enough to hold a
customer when he gets him. In this
country men like to appear masculine, if
they have anything manly about them. A
clerk must not smile when he is artlessly
told by a customer that he wants to order
a corset for friend who is precisely the
customers shape and size, and who is too
modest or too much engrossed in business
to attend to the matter himself. Some
times the friend in the background is de-
scribed as being an invalid and in need OF
the corset to hold him together when he
coughs. None of these statements de-
ceive the clerk, but he goes to work at
! the o-der Just as if he believed the Gus
toner, frequently making pathetic in
| quiries regarding the precise physical con-
dition of the ailing friend.