Daily Arizona silver belt., 1907-01-20
MALE DRESS REFORM
IT IS tOPELESSLY HAMMERED BY THE
 STIFF WHITE SHIRT.

The Way This Garment Interferes With Both Health and Comfort Some of the Absurdfties of the Pres-
 ent Masculine Style of Attire.
 The necessity by which men feel CO.,
 creed of proving to the world that they
 wear white shirts lies at the basis of all the difficulties of the dress problem.
 Until the garment becomes extinct
 it Is hopeless to attempt the reform of
 mems dress on the lines of health and
 comfort
 It will of course ultimately dlsaI,-
 pear, for it is but the mark of stage
 In the evolution of dress, just as the
 vermiform appendix Is d useless evolu-
 tionary remnant in the body. But the
 question Is whether we ought to await
 the slow course of evolution or to use our common sense and abandon the ancient garment at once.
 Why do we wear white shirts? Ages ago It was only the wealthy who could afford to clothe themselves in linen
 The possession of linen underwear was then mark of social position, and there was an obvious advantage in making public display of it.
 We may put down three-fourths of the discomfort of the hot summer to the account of the starched shirt. It prevents the very process devised by nature to keep the body cool-the evap- nf n ders this natural process in summer, the white shirt favors disease. But In winter It is n fruitful cause of illness.
 In winter the mere wearing of white shirt would no doubt leave man no better and no worse if he were ton. But the Curious law of evolution comes in and compels him to wear 1t In such a way as to do himself physical injury.
 Wherever evolution is at work it leaves vestiges-literally, footprints Probably it is millions of years since the vermiform appendix became a use less organ, but it still survives. All evolutionary surviyals appear to be harmful The appendix is the seat of appendicitis. In the Inner corner of the eye there Is the remnant of a once useful third lid, which now only lodges dust and causes irritation.
 The lord chancellors wig was once comfort in ancient drafty legislative chambers and now merely serves to make sensible man look ridiculous and give him headaches.
 People who drew up laws were long ago paid according to the number of words, but the multiplicity of words now only causes confusion. So the white shirt that was once a badge of wealth and culture, being no longer of value for that purpose, Is only cause of discomfort and disease.
 It is necessary to cut d piece out of the vest and the coat, just over the most important organs of the body, in order to prove to our neighbors that we wear white shirts, Consequently in the winter time we expose the lungs and the air passages to the cold wind and the cold rain
 From the point of view of health nothing could be more stupid, Bron- ehitis Is one of the most deadly of all diseases in this country. Bronchitis Is simply inflammation of the bronchial tubes. This inflammation is excited by chill, chilling of that part of the body left exposed in order to show that we wear white shirts.
 The white shirt, in fact, might ap- pear in the tables of the registrar gen. eral as the cause of so many deaths, perhaps 100000 year.
 And does 1t really improve mans appearance? By virtue of the associa- ton of ideas 1t certainly does Usual i ly men who do not wear white shirts | are not given to cleanliness The man who wears a white shirt washes his face and hands and brushes his clothes; hence when we see a white front and 1 white cuffs we experience that pleas ant sensation produced by general neatness of the person and clothing. l But that few square inches of white | over the chest makes a man look better is an absurd conclusion.
 The case for the white shirt has not | l leg to stand upon. The garment is unhealthy and unbe And as it has lost the only | lseful function 1t ever possessed-that | s, Its symbolism of exceptional wealth i we ought to discard it altogether. | The difficulties of this course are very | great no doubt What we want is an 'antlwhite shirt society,"" which would | lgree to wear, from some prearranged late, dress designed wholly with re- gard for comfort, health and beauty