Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 19, Number 54, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 March 1898 — Dad’s Breeches. [ARTICLE]

Dad’s Breeches.

A small boy who is a close observer, gives the family history of “papa’spants” as follows: “When dad has worn his trousers out they pass to brother John; then mother trims them round and William puts them on. When William’s legs too long have grown the trousers fail to hide ’em, so Walter claims ’em for his own, and stows himself inside ’em. Next Sam’s fat legs they close invest, and when they won’t stretch tighter, they’re turned and shortened, washed and pressed, and fixed on me—the writer. Ma works them into rags and carpets when I have burst the stiches. At doomsday we shall see (perhaps) the last of dad’s old breeches.”