Marietta daily leader. (Marietta, Ohio) 1895-1906, 1899-08-27
The Buttons on the Coat Tail.

| llS DullOlJS Oli lllC SOdl dill
What are the use and origin of the
buttons on the tail of a coat? Are they
survivals of something that was once
useful or are they the beginning of
some new evolution?
1t is thus that a reader from McKees
Rocks attempts to stir the gray matter
of the brain of this department and
enllghten himself upon an abstruse
question at the smallest possible out
lay of research. The buttons on the
tail of the coat are perhaps something
| like the celebrated whiskers on the flea
on the tail of the dog of the wife of the
wild man of Borneo, who, according to
the song, had but recently arrived in
town. But | suppose there must be
some use or purpose in them just the
same. There are plenty of fleas no
doubt who do not understand the pur-
pose of their own whiskers, just as the
majority of men do not catch on to
the secret of the buttons.
I would say, in the first place, that
the buttons are there because the tail
or put them there, but some impertin-
ent person will be sure at once to
plump another question and want to
know what is the underlying motive
of the tailor. This would be a poser
for me for the ways of the tailor are
pas nding out. How we used to
laug- at the Jay from Jayvlle who
went around with the shelf creases
plainly showing in his new hand-me-
down trousers; but, 10 and behold;
one fine day the swell tailor took to
initiating those very creases in his
best productions, and the practice has
not ceased altogether to this day. Will
anyone tell me why the tailor one
year makes trousers on the pattern of
a coffee sack, and perhaps the next fits
them to the leg like an umbrella COW
er? Can anyone account for his
freak of making bottoms one year in
the shape of hose nozzle and spread
ing them out the next like an inverted
funnel?
Is there any reason in the nature of
things why at one time he should in
sis on your wearing a sack coat that
hardly comes below your ribs, and on
another tell you that you are not in it
unlass II hono- dnWn almost fo ,rou,
knees charging you just as much for
one as the other? Don't ask me
about tailors, their ways are past find
ing out As far back as memory goes,
the tailor has, however adhered to the
practice of placing these buttons on
the coat tail. 1t seems to be one of
Is ingrained habits which he finds it
impossi.-e to outgrow. The only tail
ors who do not do it are those who
WORK for people like the Quakers and
similar denominations, with whom it
is a point of religious doctrine to have
their clothes made to suit themselves,
and who for the most part eschew but
tons and defy tailor-made fashions
and tailor-made laws with regard to
dress.
L has been contended that these but
tons were originally put on to encour-
age the button trade, just as once in
England it was decreed by the English
parliament that the dead should be
buried in garments made of wool in Or
der to encourage sheep husbandry and
the woolen trade. But this is only a
conjecture, since there is no Statute
of Buttons" in the rolls of English
laws. One grave and learned essayist
has tried to prove that it comes from
the savage custom of carrying child
rem upon the backs of their parents,
and that the -uttOns are a survival of
some primitive device for holding up
the old-tlme baby carriage 1t is a
very ingenious and learned argument.
out the writer apparently forgot one
important element in the case, name
ly, that the children are always c.
ried by their mothers and not by their
fathers among primitive races, and
that the man carrying the baby is met
with only among civilized peoples
Plttsburg Times
nrrra