The Clarksburg telegram. [volume] (Clarksburg, W. Va.) 1874-1926, 1898-08-12
DECLINE OF THE BUSTER.

I
A traveller by rail cannot fai'
| to notice the decline of the dus'
ter. And one does not need tc
be, as the man said, a centenar'
| ian to observe this. In fact, only
thirty or forty years ago busters
were commonly worn by railroad
travellers. They were co.exist
ent with the carpet sack and the
| alligator.mouthed valise, both
now more completely passed
away than the duster itself, and
almost as completely gone as the
hair.covered trunk.
The buster in its original form
was built of brown linen, which,
when starched. stood boldly out
like a garment of thin and flexi'
BILE, but not too flexible sheet
metal. 1t was worn, OF course,
to protect the wearer and his
garments from the dust. When
the linen buster hourished Loco
motives burned wood, tracks
were sand .ballasted, and rails
were light, cars were not vesti-
buled, or provided with dust
screens for the windows, and the
time required to cover a given
distance was far greater than
now. a buster was far more
needed then than now, and il was
likely to be part Of the equip
ment of the casual as well as of
the regular traveller. Indeed, it
may be said that the casual
traveller would scarcely have
thought that he had made trip
by rail unless he had provided
himself with that Indispensable
part of every travellers equip
ment.
Prim and stiff and sheet-irony
in effect as the freshly ironed
linen buster was when first put
on, it presented very different
appearance when it had been
worn for time. At first. sat
down in on a day such as was
then simply called sticky and
muggy, but which in these fash
ionable modern days is called
humid, the duster was creased
with many creases that seemed,
later, despite the weather, to be
frozen in. And these creases. in
appearance like accordion pieats
struck by lightning, shortened
the garment somewhat, They
took it up, and made it bigger
around and more bunchy.
The next effect came with con-
tinued 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 be.
come 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 unevenly, SO that the front
corners had a dip and were lower
than the back of the coat In its
first estate the linen duster was,
if not a garment of dignity, one
that had an effect OF preciseness,
but in its last was very far from
that. In fact, it is doubtful if a
person of even the most magma
tive temperament could conjure
up anything more negligee in its
general effect than stringy
linen buster.
But the linen duster was not
the only one. There were dus-
tiers of alpaca and of mohalr and
of other materials, some of them
black and some gray; big, flowing,
comfortable busters, which, if
not beautiful. had at least the
gracel that all things made of
good materials possess. You
could almost tell man, without
seeing his face, by the buster
that he Wore.
mo man is TOO poor to take a
local newspaper, and it is false
economy IN try RI GET along with