"In '49 and the early 1850's ... San Francisco enjoyed a labor shortage of acute proportions. Every able-bodied man had headed for the Mother Lode diggings and the few women who had come out from the East were not the washwoman type. The heathen Chinee had not yet been imported from Canton to beoome the universal laundryman and getting a ruffled shirt washed and starched was next to impossible. In this pass, the pioneers hit upon an ingenious solution.... Since buying new shirts and sundries was cheaper than hiring a washwoman at $100 a day, the Argonauts let their personal laundry accumulate for twelve months and then sent it out in a clipper ship bound for China where it could be washed and ironed for next to nothing. It came back a year later, and for some time it was established California practice to send laundry across the Pacific and get it back next year."
-The Big Spenders by Lucius Beebe
2 comments:
Very interesting. Americans were too cheap to pay for a laundryman, so they outsourced the task to Asia. Some things never change.
It looks as though you are enjoying that book, Will. Speaking of shirts I have an appt with Hemrajani tomorrow. I can guarantee those shirts will not be sitting in my laundry for a year.
And speaking of books, I continue to supplement my library with your list of 20 great clothing books but recently added Dressed to Kill at the suggestion of ASW commentator, Scott, who was then seconded by Laguna Beach Trad. I agree it is a good book to have and it has inspired me to watch the Bond films with a different and more educated eye toward his clothes. I think he looks great but not a fan of the shirt cuff in the early films.
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