This insulting, but humorous article published in 1896 covers the invention of the bracelet purse which was essentially a little change purse attached to a bracelet. It was trying to solve the problem of absent-minded women leaving their silly little purses behind while blaming women for not demanding pockets in their dresses.
A Purse Protector
Invention That May Prove a Boon to Absent-Minded Women
Some one was complaining of there being so many fools in the world, when he was reminded that if there were not so many fools it would be harder for the rest of us to make a living. Next in line, the absent-minded are the most useful people in the world. This, at first thought, may seem rather paradoxical, but upon mature reflection it will be apparent to the slowest thinker. Their very absent-mindedness gives the inventive genius ample chance to benefit his absent-minded mother or sister and at the same time make his own fortune. It is the Yankee who can turn his hand to any little trifle that makes the immense fortune.
One of them has been brooding over the trials and tribulations of the poor unfortunates of the female sex, who are said to be so under the dictation of their dressmakers that they do not dare insist upon having pockets and therefore have been condemned for years past to go about with their belongings in their hands, including the pocketbook, thus making themselves the easy prey of street thieves. And when one of these women proves absent-minded also she is then at a double disadvantage. But she need not suffer from either of these inconveniences any longer; she has found a friend in the inventor of the pocketbook preventer, a sort of bracelet or handcuff arrangement for fastening the pocketbook to her wrist. The bracelet clasps firmly and closely about the wrist and is fastened by two chains to the pocketbook – the ends of the chain being riveted firmly to the thick ends of the book. She can then hold the book in her hand or let it hang from the wrist. This is not only a protection against loss by theft, but also against loss from pure absent-mindedness. It is just the thing for people who live in the clouds continually and need a bodyguard to look after the material things of life for them and would lose their heads if they were not well fastened on.
Source: The Topeka state journal. (Topeka, Kan.), 27 Nov. 1896.
