THE SIX BUTTON PRINCIPLE.

Globe, Volume IX, Issue 1278, 24 April 1878, Page 3

THE SIX BUTTON PRINCIPLE.

[From the “New York Times.”] Although the female dress-reformers always demonstrate at their annual conventions that the practice of supporting stockings by what are d- licately termed ligatures insures the moral and physical ruin of the sex, no successiul substitute for the denounced article of dress has yet been invented. Certain dressreformers have, it is true, devised a system of halyards, brails, and dowuhauls, which they assert are far superior to the deadly ligature, but the intraeacy of all this running rigging, und the difficulty which inexperienced persons find in its management, have prevented it from coming into use. The inexperienced woman when thus rigged is very apt to make mistakes, and to find herself scudding under bare poles, in consequence of having hauled away on the downhaui when she had merely intended to take a small pull at the halyards. Thus, few persons except dress-reformers are rigged with the improved stocking gear, and even these confess that, for the purpose of catching an early morning train, the despised ligature has its manifest advantages. About two months ago the ladies of three contiguous counties in Pennsylvania yyere successively visited by a slight, graceful, and unassuming young woman,' who announced that she was the agent of a “ Women’s Dressreform Benevolent Association,” and that she desired to call their attention to a new invention of immense hygienic value. The new invention consisted of the application of the six-buttoned glove principle to hosiery. Of course, this is a delicate subject, but in the interest of reform and public morality it must bo discussed. It is idle for us to ignore the existence of stockings, ard it is cowardly to shrink horn performing a public duty because it involves an allusion to a delicate topic. Let us, then, go boldly forward and relate the strange conduct or the unassuming young woman, as reported among the police news of a Pennsylvania paper. While the substitution of buttons for ligatures or running rigging struck the ladies of the three counties us an admirable invention, the amazing cheapness with which the agent of the alleged association offered to sell the improved garments created immense enthusiasm. She said that the only object of the association was to do good, imd that it was t herefore prepared to sell the best quality of six-tuptout'd goods at one-halt' of their original co^t, 1 In confirmation of this statement she submitted lithographic copies of letters from Preside t Hayes, Mr Tilden, Peter Cooper, Stanley Matthews, and other eminent statesmen, all of whom asserted that they felt that the introduction of six buttoned hosiery was the greatest boon which could be bestowed upon the women of America, and simultaneously ordered six dozen pair* of assorted siqcs to be sent to their respective addresses. In addition to these letters, the agent exhibited a sample of the garment in question,

which appeared to hoof the very best quality. The opportunity was one which no prudent lady could permit to pass unimproved, and nearly every one to whom the agent applied ordered at least half a dozen pairs, to be paid for upon delivery. There was, however, one little preliminary which the agent insisted was indispensable, if she was to execute her orders to the satisfaction of her customers. The human mind shrinks from mentioning this preliminary, but it cannot be ignored. If the buttons were to be any use, they must be so placed in relation to the button-holes that the garment would be neither too tight nor too loose. Hence, when the agent produced a tape-measure and a note-book, her view of the matter was at once conceded to be correct , and the agent’s note-book was furnished with the required data. Thus, that unassuming agent went from house to house throughout the whittle of three counties, cheering the female population with the hope of miraculously cheap and beautiful hosiery, and filing her note-book with statistics. Unfortunately that otherwise astute agent drank too much whisky at the last town which she visited, and being arrested for disorderly conduct confessed that she was a man. When the Indies who had ordered sixbuttoned hosiery learned the truth as to the unassuming agent and the fate which had befallen him, they denounced the wretch with great vigour, and were unanimously of opinion that a combination of wild horses and red hot pinners could alone do justice to him To this outbins of indignation succeeded the terrible thought, what had the felonious agent done with his collection of statistics P Naturally, this thought led straight to hysterics, and for the next week the sale of sal volatile in Central Pennsylvania increa-ed to an unprecedented extent.

A deputation of indignant fathers waited upon the inconceivable villain in gaol, and oeraanded the immediate destruction of his note-book. To this request he declined to accede. He admitted that his pretended associ ition did not exist, and that he had no intention of executing the orders which his deceived customers had given him, hut he explained that he was an earnest reformer, and that he intended to publish the statistics in question, in order that the medical fraternity might become convinced of the blighting tff-ct of the ordinary ligature. Nothing could shake his determination, ile said that he had a great duty to perform, and that much as it pained him to g r u ve anybody, he must perform that du'y. The indignant parents left his ei 11 much cost down in spirits, and after vainly applyi g to the local court for an injunction torbi iding the false agent to publish his statistics, went home and reported their failure to their wives and daughters. The one question now agitating the public mind in Pt-nn.-yl vania is whether that wretched felon will really publish his statistics. The contingency is one which cannot be contemplated without a shudder; but at the same time, it is possible that there is more or less merit, in the pretended plan of adaoting the sx-buttoned glove principle to more esoteric garments, and that the pre tended reformer his really solved the problem with which professional dress reformers have proved themselves incompetent to grapple.