SHIRT SLEEVES.

Dunstan Times, Issue 873, 10 January 1879, Page 3

SHIRT SLEEVES.

(New York Times,) It is duiing the hot weather that the weakness of the human shirt-sleeve is most conspicuously shown. The wristband droops over the wrist, becomes moist and limp, and ma Mens the wearer as he vainly tries to induce it to retire to the seclusion of its true home in the coat-sleeve. This pro icness of the wrist-band to descend over ihe hand is due to the inherent viciousness of the shirt-sleeve as at present constructed. If the sleeve is male long enolLh to permit the elbow to be bent, it is too long when the arm is straight. So far, human ingenuity has been unable to devise any plan for making a shirt sleeve which shall be always long enough, and never either too long or too short. It is, perhaps, a mere arbitrary conventionalism which decrees that woman may dispense with any and all sleeves, provided she feels so disposed, while man must always woar at least shirtsleeves. Could we oast our shirt-sleeves to the wind, we could emulate the coolness and comfort with which the other sex en •lures midsummer heat; but this must not be. There was a young unmarried clergyman in Essex, Mass., who, some years ago, after wrestling in vain with his exasperating shirt-sleeves, recklessly cut them off just below the shoulder, and, being a particular'y nice and dainty person, with his own hand stitched a lace ruffle around what we might call the stumps of the amputated arms. What was the result? At fiist, coolness and elation of spirits ; hut afterwards, ruin and remorse.. His wash-r----woman was prone to gossip, and before long the whole village knew that in the clergyman’s weekly “ wash” were always to he found sleeveless garments ornamented with lace. Upon this slender foundation was built a most appalling story of clerical profligacy, and although a clerical court of inquiry explained the whole affair and acquitted the clergyman of the charges of immorality, his usefulness was destroyed, and he resigned his charge.