This is a Hold Up

The jaundiced characterization of a dandified, belt-wearing, young riverboat hand is vintage Mark Twain—and a puzzle. After all, men seldom wore belts to hold up their pants in the 1800s. Belt loops were even rare on pants until the 1920s! Men wore suspenders, attached to waistband buttons, to keep high-waisted, loose-fitting trousers from falling to the wearer’s ankles. Ditto the adjustable cinch straps on the backs of old-time britches. But belts? Not to hold up pants. Not even in the W