Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1898-10-05
Decline OF THE pusrER.
The Practical Disappearance ofa Garment
That Was Orce Familiar:


A traveller BY rail cannot fail to
notice the decline of the duster. And
one does not need to be, as the man
said; d centenarian to observe this.
III fact, only thirty 6r. forty years ago
busters were commonly worn by rail-
road travellers: They were co-existent
with the carpet sack and the alligator
mouthed valise, both now more com
pletely passed away than the duster
itself, and almost as completely gone
Us the hair-covered trunk:
Tie duster in its original form was
built Of, brown linen; which; when
starched, stood boldly out like gar
ment Of thin and flexible, but not tco
flexible, sheet metal. It was worn; of
course, to protect the wearer and his
garments from the dust. When the
linen duster fourished locomotives
burned wood; tracks were sand-bal-
lasted, and rails were tight; cars were
hot vest;buled, OF provided with dust
SCI Ieens for the windows; and the time
required to cover d given distance was
far greater than now: A dustsr was
FIR more needed then than now; and
it was likely to be part Of the equip
ment of the cdsudl as we'll rs OF the
regular traveller. Indeed; it may be
said that the casual traveller would
scarcely have thought that he had
made trip by rdil unless be bad pro-
Aided himself with that Indispensable
part Of every travellers Equipment:
Prim and stiff and sheot-irony Id
effect as the freshly ironed linen
duster was when first put on; it pres,
ented i very differcnt appearance when
it had been worn for time. Al first;
sat down in on a day such as was then
simply called sticky.or muggy, but
which ii these fashionable modcrn
days is called humid, the duster was
Creased with many creases thas seemed,
later; despite the weather,to to be frozen
in: And these creases, in appearances
like accordion pleats struck by light
hing, shortened the garment some-
what: They took it UP; and made it
bigger around and more buuchy:
The next eject eame with continued
wear; when the starch was all gone
out of it; and the duster became
stringy. And if before it had seemed
to shorten up and grow stout it now
seems to become lean and attenuated;
to take into itself many little rolling
longitudinal wrinkles; to sort OF
shrink in on itself sidewise; and. to
draw over lengthwise; and by this
time it had probably come to hang un::
evenly, so that the front corners had
d dip and were lower than the back of
tile cont. In it's first estate tile linen
diister was; if not q garment of Dig
nifty; one that had an effect of precise
ness; but in its Inst was very far from
that. In fact, it is doubtful if d per-
son of even the most imaginative
temperament could coniure up any,
thing more negligee in its general
effect than stringY linen duster:
1, But the linen duster was not the
only one. There were busters of
alpaca and of mohair and of other
materials, some of them black and
some gray; big, flowing, comfortable
busters; which. if not beautiful, had
at least the grace that all things made
of good materials possess. You could
almost tell man, without seeing his
face, by the duster that he wore
New York Sun.