The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-04-25
BIG SLEEVES AND THE LAW.
Our Puritan FOrefathcrs Forbade
Ladies' to Wear Them Very wide.
From the Boston transmit.

From the Boston Transcript.
Dedham leaps into popularity, or at
least into notoriety. with a mighty bound,
springing forward as if on a balloon, and
all by the aid of big sleeves. 1t appears,
and the press of the land begins to ring
with the news. that long, long ago Ded-
ham set her face nightly against the in
iQuity Of puned sleeves and the vain temp
tationS thereof, and, with Puritan fervor
and promptness passed a law prohibit
ing them municipal statute of Dedham
Of the year Of grace 1888 reads, we are in
formed:
And be it further enacted, That here
after no person whatsoever shall make a
garment for women or any other sex
with sleeves more than half an ell wide
In the widest part, and SO proportionate
Tor bigger or smaller. persons. And for
present reformation of immoderate great
sleeves and some other superfluities which
may easily be redresscd without much
prejudice or spoil of garments, 1t is or
Half an ell is not a phrase used by Fe-
Xix or Doucet or any of the rulers of
sleeves of this era. An ell is said by anti
quarians and others to be, in old English
measurement about forty-five inches.
This would be a yard and nine inches.
To determine the length of an ell most
women would swiftly but cautiously meas
ure the distance from the ends Of their
noses to the e3tremities of their dexter
thumbs, stretched as far as possible on a
bias line away from their right shoulders;
they would then add to this exact yard
the nine inches which are well known to
exist between the middle finger of a Wo-
man who Is busy sewing back and across
over her hand 70 spot on the line OF her
wrist, which she discerns by intuition,
as the precise limit of the quarter yard.
(Women always drop their scissors from
their laps and oftentimes lose their Thin
bleS while making this measurement as
it is very complex and delightfully."- ex-
citing
the old Dedham statute was undoubted-
ly this English standard ell of forty
five inches. The canny Scotch, being
thriftier merchants, used legally to sell
To be sure. they had to buy it by the
same length, but that was a matter of
no consequence. Besides, Flemish and
Dutch merchants, being thriftier still
counted only twenty-seven inches and ell
1t is very affecting to read in the old
Dedham statute that it was not the wear
made garments for women or any other
sex" with 'immoderate great sleeves"
who were to be offenders in the eyes Of
the law. Every woman and most men
know that II is the dressmakers and the
tailors who lead womankind into these
eXtravagances. What Boston woman,
yea, verify, what Dedham woman of TO
day or Of 1883, would of her own free
will, unstimulated by dressmakers' man
date, so spread her shoulder cloth to the
breezes as if about to mount and fly away
with wings bigger than a dozen doves to
a region where fashions are probably I'M
known. ANGELS sleeves" is, of course,
but a figurative expression for those traC-
ing shoulder garments which went out
of even their limited vogue some time
ago; they were the object of much I'M
angelic Objurgation, by the way, during
their brief earthly career.
The 'immoderate sleeves of 1895 are
big enough in all conscience, but nobody
expects any legislation against them
Dedham is herewith warned against try
ing to revive her ancient statute and
put it into practical working use The
"Old'' woman of $50 years ago may have
meekly bowed to the decree of "tyrant
man" and furled her sleeves at his bid
ding; but the New woman of the pres
ent is firm for her inalienable rights to
be as fashionable as he pleases Cor CAM,
and from Dedham to Brookline, from
Dorchester to Melrose, and all over Bos-
ton there would arise a cry of protest if
any man-legislator should try to make a
law against big sleeves