Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1890-06-18
TRICKS OF TAILORS.
How They Succeed in Hiding Mas
culine Deformities.
A Maker OF Clothing for Fashionable Men
Reveals Some Secrets of the Trade
Hollow Chests, Distorted Shoul-
ders and Crooked Legs.


s'To bolster up the human form divine
has become large part of the tailor's
art" said fashionable composer Of
symphonies in worsted and corkscrew to
Chicago Herald reporter. "You have
no idea how misshapen the present gen.
Grafton of young men is! What is it
due to? How should 1 know? / pre-
sumo the lack of early instruction to
boys how to hold their bodies, how to
sit and how to stand has much to do
with it. These young fellows who, first
in school or college and then in the
bank or the store, are forever bending
over their desks, may be told at glance.
They are stoop shouldered, narrow
chested, slab-sided. I'll show you what
mean"
The tailor went to heap of half-fn-
ished clothes, from which he picked out
one Prince Albert coat ''Look at
this he said. There were small boil
sters and paddings in a variety Of places.
There was one on the left shoulder and
around the shoulder blade, there was
| another one all over the chest, differing
in thickness here and therein fact, the
whole inside of the coat in It's unfinished
condition looked very much like the
winner after prize mill. There were
patches large as porous plasters stuck
| all over it.
''That coat is being made for young
bank clerk, young man very pretty to
look at once he is in one of my coats,
and certainly considered handsome by
the young ladies of his acquaintance.
Yet you can see for yourself what con-
! finement at the desk has done for him.
If he had been put through a good
course of athletics about five years ago
he wouldn't be such sight to his tailor.
But his case, though an aggravated one,
is no exception. Look at these coats"
Thus stimulated the reporter looked
carefully through the pile. Alas! the
man was right. Some padding, some
said" to a readjustment of nature, was
only too visible on every one of these
garments.
THE only exception I find to this
rule that every young man of the pres
ent generation is developed too much or
too little in some portion Of his anat-
omy," continued the lecturer, sis in
the case of members of the militia. If
playing soldier-as many people call it
is good for nothing else, at least
it is good for this. 1t produces
straightforward young fellows. Their
chest, their stomach, their shoul-
ders are in the right place.
They've been taught how to carry
their bodies. In fact, 1 can generally
tell militiaman the moment spy him
in the street or shop And it's the same
with the men of military training.
There is a certain way they have of
holding their heads and of standing up
straight and manly that tells of their
having spent some time in the army.
There is, for instance, a customer 6f
mine, don't think he'll mind 1t If /
give his name, who is case in point.
His name is Herr von Beschwitz. He is
German of noble lineage, and he spent
seven years in the Saxon contingent OF
the German army as regular officer.
But he has been in this country for
many years; yet when he came to me
the first time to be measured for suit
l was struck at once by his military
bearing. And when he took off his
coat, and saw his frame, as even and
well-proportioned as Phidias made it on
his Apollo, knew for a certainty he
was an army man. Yes, sir, I for one
am in favor of compulsory military
training, or at least for some form o1
athletics which will make every young
man as nature meant him to be, not lop
sided and pigeon-breasted, with the alb
domen protruding and the chest all In /:
hollow"
"What is the most prevailing defect
in physical sense, among YOU
patrons?"
''Nearly all of them have one shoulder
higher than the other, and have caved
in chest Since they are all young OF
old or middle-aged business men. have
come to the conclusion that it is dut
to.the habit of nearly every man wht
spends much time writing at desk t.
: hold his body improperly-to twist i
out of its shape, SO to speak, thus ele
waiting one shoulder and depressing thu
J other. Let this thing once get heyont
| o certain point, and 1t is incurable,
| believe. At least never knew or heart
> of case where such man got hi
/ normal shape back again. I remembe
one case of book-keeper at Marshal
| Fields Wholesale house. His lef
} shoulder had actually sunk fully tw'
| inches below it's old level. SO he triet
5 tho Swedish movement cure for about
: year. He was at it good and hard, bu
| it was no use, The habit of sitting
in certain position had become to
: strong for him, and he Is just as lop
sided to-day as he used to be. That
only one of the failings, however, o
r the manly form which we are constant
/ ~ called upon to improve. There
: another speculiarity some men suffe
} under-bow-legs To hide this defec
t al sorts of expedients must be adoptet
by the tailor. | know one man Who's
. ! neither limbs are most decidedly out o
5 the erpeii:1.iiaaular and who always wear
: pants that are so full that not one II
/ twenty ever discovers <the crooket
5 nature of what is inside of them"