A few days since I was intensely amused by the sensation created by a full-blown white-shirted swell—the miners always “go” for a white shirt—who strutted through the streets of Leadville as though he were the owner of the Prospect Mine itself. This “nice young man” was attired after the most approved style of the “masher,” and carried his valise in so gingerly a manner as to beget the open derision of such miners as happened to be around at the time. Every eye turned upon the new comer, and remarks highly the reverse of complimentary were hurled at his stove-pipe, his shirt collar, and the peculiar cut of his nether garments. One droll son of toil, shouldering a pick, proceeded to march in the footsteps of the swell with the mincing gait of a miss of fifteen in a pair of brand-new high-heeled shoes. This burlesque movement was hailed with rapturous delight to the evident dismay of “Sir White Shirt,” who accelerated his pace without daring to cast a look behind, and inwardly condemning the folly that caused them to come to a reason where the pants are invariably thrust inside the boots, and where shir-collars are unknown quantities.

Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, June 7, 1879.