Waiting for the laundry to be returned

Gentlemen - don't complain if your wife hasn't sewn on that shirt button (that's if wives sew on buttons these days, which I doubt!)

From The New York Times 23 November 1896

Venezuela’s New Industries
Maracaibo has a new Steam Laundry, a beer brewery and an ice cream factory . . .

United States Consul Plumacher at Maracaibo, Venezuela ‘The past year has brought us . . . a steam laundry. I have not reported sooner, as I wanted to see if they were successful. . . In former days we were dependent for washing upon local washerwomen. One’s patience was severely tried, as we had often to wait three or four weeks before the washing was returned. We knew our new shirts would be returned without buttons and ruined by the beating on the stones at the lake shore; we had the sad conviction that the male friends of our washerwomen would enjoy the use of our clothes for at least a fortnight.’