Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1896-05-28

with very slight provocation. One
feels as il one could kill that baby
next door for screaming. Nothing
seems good in the eating line but ices,
and cool drinks. Nothing seems good
in the dressing line but that which is
known as a skirt and a shirt waist.
And if ever there was an untidy look
ing thing in all the world, it is the
shirt waist. Women drift to the shirt
waist habit as they do to drink. or
gambling, or slang, or bicycles, or any
other vice. The shirt waist originally
started as a shirt, pure and simple. 1t
was worn by the tailor made girl with
a well-cut skirt and jaunty jacket.
Then somebody, who knew its comfort
and thought nothing of its effect, put
in full sleeves, made it little closer
fitting and wore it with skirt and
without coat, and the consequence is
that some of the slinkiest looking
skirts that were ever created, or ever
insulted a good dressmaker by their
appearance, attached themselves unto
shirt waists, and each wearer of the
combination counts herself dressed.
The impression when one looks at
New York street on which women most
do congregate is lot of boys who
haven't pulled their shirts down we'll,
who are wearing not trousers nor knee
breeches, but some fool sort of an
arrangement that is not well shaped.
That is the skirt. The shirt wearcr
never studies her mirror below tho
belt and as long as the stiff satin bow
at her neck looks well, and her bolt is
taut, she gives no thought to the old
skirt, y as she calls it. Mis-cut skirts,
misfit skirts, half.worn skirts, badly
hung skirts, and all sorts and con
ditions of skirts are counted proper us
long as the shirt waist is above them.
just between you and me, | some
times wonder when | look at a woman
in shirt waist that thore doesn't
come over her sensation of nuueness,
for that is the kind of feeling that
would attack man it he took of his
coat and waistcoat and pranced around
during the day in his shirt sleeves,
after the parlance Of masculinity.
Then, too, the shirt waist is u fraud.
All the people who sell them, or make
them, or wear them, diiate on their
GOODNESS. This GOODNESS might be u
truth if it were not for the fact that
the shirt waist is surmounted by a
collar, in stiffness like unto the
starchiest of the stRrchy, and finished
at the wrists by cuffs that are not only
stiff but require cuff buttons. There
is no joy in life when a woman has to
put pair Of cuff buttons in pair of
cuffs. The chances are ten to one that
the link goes through the first button
hole with ease, but through the second
it will not go, 1t slips, it slides, and
it cuts your finger. Then all that you
Gun do, if you wish to unite that cuff
and that link is to sink your dignity,
and with an air of subsection lick the
back of that buttonhule until it bends
to your will.
As for buttoning the collar in front
lovely woman has shown how extensive
hor knowledge is by conquering that.
She does not break her finger nails
over collar button, not she. She
cody takes Il small glove buttoner,
and, quicker than magician can say
Hey Presto !" the union il achieved.
The shirt waist is demoraizng With
u, the average woman wears a made
tie, which shows that she has no ap.
probation of what is really good form,
from the standpoint Of the habcr-
uasher Then, nine times out of ten.
the girl who wears her shirt waist
carries her gloves. don't know why,
but do know that this lack of trim,
ness IS due TO the Influence of the
peculiar article Of wearing apparel that
covers her above the belt. And,
gracious, goodness! look at the belt.
1t may be narrow, or it may be wide
1t may have plated buckle, that
came from cheap John shop, Oh
gold ono that came from Tiilanv's