Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1891-06-20
THE OFFICE COAT.
1t Has Become an Institution in AL the
Government Offices.

1t Has Become an Institution in All the
Government Offices.
A STAR REPORTER RECENTLY OBJ.
"A served in the Treasury Department build
ing laborer wearing a coat the sleeves OF
which were attached to the shoulders by large
brass brads.
"Where did you get that coat?" was asked.
"Fished 1t out de waste paper basket in Col.
IS room, boss" was the reply.
"Do you find many coats that way?''
"Well, no, sir. 1 don't. I amt found one
now for five years till pulled dis here one out
day before yestidday."
"You say it was in Col. IS room. How
was that1' said the reporter.
"Why, dis here coat was Col. IS Office coat
and guess he got tired Of it and chucked it in
de trash
1T OUGHT TO BE PHOTOGRAPHED.
The garment in question ought to be photo
graphed. The sleeves were worn through at the
elbow; the back was as smooth as a mirror and
almost as shiny; the lining was in rags it had
parted at the shoulders and the repairing had
been done on very amaseurish basis, with the
brass paper fasteners that are used to keep
sheets OF paper together. Further investiga-
ton into the subject of Office coats revealed the
fact that few of them are presentable garments.
ing in 1t has been said that one can always tell
whether a department clerk works hard or not
by his Office coat. Ii the elbows are intact he
is probably loafer; if they are worn through
he is a more or less assduous user of his desk.
Any old coat is used, although sometimes the
swells of the departments buy cheap coats of a
light material for this purpose. But the usual
thing Is to bring O coat down to the Office which
has become too shabby TO be worn anywhere
else. Then it does service for years, until
L.
begins to make fun of it. Then it goes to the
waste paper basket and is picked out by La
borer or messenger.
ITS VALUE AS PENwIPER.
One custom quite common in the depart
ments is to use the Office coat as penwiper.
If it is black coat little black ink rather i'm
proves its appearance, but If it is light col
ored coat the splotches of ink that decorate
the sleeves are more curious than beautiful.
However, nobody seems to care what the gar
ment looks like, provided its different compo-
nent parts hold together.
There Is a tradition in one of the departments
that clerk once appeared there in an old
fuii-dress swallow-tailed coat that had done
service on festive occasions for upward of forty
years. 1t was said the owner had been married
IN It, Just think what a degradation for the coat.
After doing service all its life on occasions OF
pleasure, in its old age it was made to go to
work. The story runs that this particular coat
was the subject of incessant ridicule because OF
its tails and that the wearer finally took his
scissors and cut them off, and after that it
looked precisely like the garments that walters
In restaurants wear.
Some clerks don't wear any coat but keep
their hats on and take their coats off as though
the work Of the government was something in
the nature Of digging or hoeing in the open
air. but there are SO many of the genter sex
employed by Uncle Sam that this habit is really
more common in the Offices of professional and
business men than it is in the departments.
SOME HAVE OFFICE TROUSERS.
Office trousers? Yes; the writer once saw a
pair and was told that in this particular govern
ment ONCE many of the clerks not only changed
their coats when they came in to work in the
morning, but their neither garments as we'll
This was ingenious. 1t solved the problem OF
now to prevent Your trousers from bagging at
the knees. The means is to be found simply
in not wearing the trousers except when you
are on the streets Have one pair Of trousers
to stand up and walk in and another pair to sit
down in. But it does not appear that Office
trousers have ever been generally used. The
old Office coat. however, has become one of the
institutions OF the departments.