Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-07-10
MANNERS FOR MALES,

1t is with regret that we observe a dispo
sition on the part of esteemed co!emporarie.
who are bent on re6orming the manners oi
the American male, to carry that reform tc
degree which would imply either the aboli-
tion of necessary parts OF the male species
or the immolation and uselessness of the
business worker. The cultivation of male
manners is useful function, but the length
to which some of the apostles of that cult
are pushing calls for warning against
cultivating the man out of existence.
One example of this sort is furnished by q
recent classification of every man who
crosses his legs in street car as specimen
of the bipedal American hog. The man
who permits that habit to interfere
with and annoy his fellow pas
sengers is doubtless guilty of bad
manners; but the wholesale classi-
fcation of all crossed legs as illustrations
OF hoggishness, is crude aud arbitrary. Let
US consider the circumstances of the case.
Legs are a necessary and useful appur-
tenance of the male of the species. Apart
his fare to take his legs with him, the arrange
ments OF nature are such that it would be
extremely difficult for him to leave them
behind, and such a course would be largely
destructive OF his future utility upon leav-
ing the car. AS the seats OF street cars are
universally constructed at height and
angle to suit persons of shorter limbs than
the average man, it is plain that the un-
fortunate male person who travels in street
cars must do the best he can with his legs.
We plead for special act of favor to long
legged men, who being equipped with i'm
perfect arrangement for folding up their
legs like jack knives often find that the best
disposition they can make Of their super
fuous length is to cross it; and should be
permitted to do so without being condemned
as of porcine manners.
The obvious necessity of a man who is
blessed with good walking apparatus to do
the best he can with it, permits us to 60 to
the next question of manners which involves
the propriety of business men, when en-
gagged in work during the summer, taking
off their coats and hustling in their shirt
sleeves. The New York Sun. with that
posltiveness which is its great strength as
an arbiter of manners, declares that the
coats must be kept on, as a matter of
decorum and modesty. We must decline to
believe that polite society which accepts
the decollete costume as full dress for ladies
can be shocked at the clean linen of shirt
sleeved business workers, or even the
coatless ardor of Bob Ingersoll, or the Hon.
Joseph Henry Walker, OF Massachusetts, in
political debate. Decorum in costume con-
sists in its fitness to the circumstances, and,
as society beholds undisturbed, the scant
raiment of the male bather, oarsman. or
tennis player, it can easily tolerate the
much more complete dress of the business
man who takes off his coat in order to get
through the most business in the shortest
given time.
But there are even more positive argu-
ments for the shirt sleeves. Shirt sleeves
are the visible type of American industry
and progressiveness. The wonderful pro-
gress of this nation was accomplished by a
race of workers who take off their coats
when they go to work under a condition of
high thermometer. The reason why the
great successes OF business life are won by
country boys who come to the city, is be-
cause they have been taught those habits of
energetic work represented by wearing the
white banner of the shirt sleeves and pitch
ing in with all their might. We can assent
to restraining the national allegiance to
shirt sleeves in respect to abolishing them at
the dinner table; but when it is decreed that
Americans shall no longer work in their
shirt sleeves, our energy as a race Of work.
ers will be deteriorated to the level of the
efete aristocracies.
manners is Manners" says Mr.. j. Gar
gerry, ''but your 'elth's your 'elth." This
pro ound social aphorism from q character
vino possessed wonderful amount of real
good manners, may be applied to the pres
ent topic to show that both legs and shirt
sleeves are entitled to the federation of the
professors of manners, under conditions
which contribute to the comfort and
efficiency of mankind.