The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1901-05-31

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The unsainly. unshapeiy people who,
SAINT wear the garment themselves. and
who. therefore. scowled at the male shirt
waist asst SUMMED and predicted that.
las IL was ouly an idotfc fad IL
wouldn't be revived at all this year.
Iare in for a big surprise pretty SOON
remarked a travelling man In the hab-
lerdashery line. The male shirt waist
lis 20 far from being a dead issue thar
I wouldn't be a. all surprised TO see II
universally adopted. In this country at
ANY rate. within the ext two or three
years. 1t is going to a W five or ten
times as great a ogu this summer as
it had last season. as I am in a position
to know. The big firms o. shirt makers
have felt the masculine pulse in this
Imatter. and the verdict Is all In favor
OF the shirt waist They have. accord
ltngly gone In heavily during the past
fan and winter for the manufacture of
Ihot-weather shirt waists for men. and
its the best gamble In the world that
their product won't be thrown bach on
tneir hands. Tns vast majority Of men
Iapproye o. the shirt waist. and SO do
ltne vast majority OF women-particu-
iariy wome with husbands and BROTH
iers. who have heard their men folks
growing over the discomfort OF wear
ing coats during the sizzling spells. In
most or the big haberdashers' establish
ments OF New York scores OF varieties
lof shirt waists for meE are even now on
exhibition. and the sales have been
Igood. The season Is very backward
lover there. but when the hot days come
along It's ten TO one that the shirt
waists viii be just eaten UP by the
male population OF New York. thus TO
put 1t The shirt wais for men had a
Ifar greater vogue in New York last
summer than any OF the
Iset forth There were some extremely
lhot days when Broadway was positive
ly filtered with coatless men. and the
weren't faddists or willieboys either.
Without going into details as To- the
tfashioning OF these new shirt waists for
Imen. l may state with a fair degree OF
knowledge that the puzzle has been
lsolVed. and that the new garments are
I'm every respect eat. cool and entirely
within the limits even ~ that puritan
Iical species OF propriety which causes
some persons TO shudder at the spec
ltacle OF a man in his shirt sleeves. 7
never saw ANYTHING disgraceful I'm a
shirt-sleeved man. myself. but there
were lots OF elderly ladies OF a very
strict method Of life who did. and who
wrote cutting letters to the
I~embodying their ideas. and. OF course
the problem .hey set up had to be met
by the manufacturers. II has been
and the shirt waist is going To-
take hold big
The great difficulty in introducing an
innovation OF this character is the
natural co~nservativeness OF the male
being in this country and his fear or
lridicule. There were doubtless thou
sands and tens Of thousands of men
last year who in their hearts envied the
independent chaps who paraded around
jim a state of obvious comfort in shirt
waists and yet they were restrained
from following suit by the funny cracks
lin the npwSna narS ahnnt tho mala shirt
waist and by fear of the laughter of
their equally conservative friends. But
considerations of this sort are not going
TO prevail when the real rush for the.
male shirt waist sets in. and / predict
tina in the course of the next two
summers the nan who appears on the
streets on a hot day with a coat on viii
look odd. There's no reason why the
men shouldn't be as independent I'm
these affairs and as oblivious to criti-
cism as the women. Youll observe
that when Il new kink in the feminine
dress is introduced the women take IL
lup and stick TO ii without any regard
Whatsoever for criticism or the ridicule :.
of the funny folks who write for the
newspapers. When the jersey for NO
linen was sprung and the fun in the pa
lpers ragged fast and furious over it. did
the women abandon the garment? Not
la bit of II. They went right on wear
ing it until they got tired OF IT. Did
criticism or the fear OF ridicule prevent
women from sticking 10 their I'%
sleeves when they We're in fashio ,
IOr their bustles? Or their pull-bac.
skirts? Not much. And herein the
women have far more. spunk than the
linen. Do the somewhat ayage criti-
Icisms constantly appearing in the
newspapers throughout the country
lover the way the women OF today a..
holding their skirts induce the women
to hold their skirts any other way?
Not If / know ii. and I'm jumping
around the country n good deal. The
women who first wore rainy day
skirts were laughing stocks, bur
they persisted. and o there's not
one woman in ten who hasn't a rainy
day skirt hanging OF the hoo for use
in sloppy weather or for bike riding.
THE advantage that the male shirt
waist has is that 1t makes for comfort.
There are millions OF men in this coun-
try who wouldn't adopt faddy ideas I'm
dress that were simply designed for
looks from the fashionable point Of
view, but who nevertheless think a heap
of comfort, and when an appreciation
of the manifold advantages OF the shirt
waist soaks into the minds Of these men
and the slump toward the shirt waist.
begins there are a lot of fogyish per-
sons OF the sort that regard the shirt
|sleeved male bipeds as indecent who
are due to be shocked a heap."-wash-
|ington Star.