Ashtabula weekly telegraph. [volume] (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1853-1873, 1872-06-01
Mr.. Toot'S Vest Buttons,

Whether to button or 10 upbutton the low
ermost button of his vest was vital question
with young Toots at his first party. When a
man came in with the lower button buttoned,
what should the difident and deprecatory
IoOts do but button up his vest at the bottomi
But seeing the next man with the lower button
open, Tools in bewildered perplexity relaxed
his own. To be or not TO be-" said Hamlet
in his despair To button or not to button"
said the excited Toots in his despair.
Now. the trouble with Toois was a lack of
what the French call 0pLom6-straight-up- and
down-edness. He had no confidence in his
own Judgment in matter that was, to his own
locuiion, "of no consequence at ALL" Nine
tenths of the men and women in society are
quite as cowardly in trfles as was Mr. Toots
The despotism OF fashion lives upon this
cowardice. Men and women wait 10 see what
shade oil gloves is proper, that is to say, what
shade OF gloves their next neighbor wears
before they venture to decide for themselves
taste IS nothing, picturesqueness is out of the
question:; the hair must lie long or short the
hat large Or small, the panier big OF little, the
vest bultoned at the bottom or not, not accord.
ing TO individual taste or preference, but ac-
cordDg TO the prevailing custom. And who
then set The fashions? The people who dare
to do as they pleasc.
For instance, it is still an open question
whether or not gloves are to be worn at a gen.
ueman's party. At the last one we attended,
lcelng, ike MT. loots, little doubtful on the
point, we counted and just one-half the guests
had brought their kids. But gentleman of
our acquaintance recently tried a more curious
experiment He found himself at a gentle
mans party without his gloves, and noticing
the evident division of opinion in regard to
the wearing OF gloves, he mischievously un-
dertook to abolish then for the evening He
managed TO get into conversation with each of
the gentlemen who wore gloves, and then
spoke little decidedly of Pie impropriety of
wearing gloves. The result was that he found
each man in Toots state of mind and before
the evening was over there was not glove in
the room: 1t only wants little positiyeness
to make fashions.
One of the worst effects of this cowardce is
that II gives, or seems to give, narrow Drained
people right 10 dictate. The more one i. a
slave to custom, the more does one resent any
assertion of personal liberty on the part of
others. have no respect for him." said q
man TO US the other day in speaking of an
eminent author; he parts his hair in the
middle" AMI he spoke as though parting the
hair in the middle were a capital offense.
Now, the author in question may regard a
part in the middle as more becoming than a
part on the side What right have the whole
family of Grundics TO prescribe where q mans
hair shall be parted?
To tolerate differences is the first lesson that
generous culture teaches man, and our sem
sitiveness about matters which are, like the
vest buttons of the gentle Toots, " of no con-
sequence at all" only goes to show the semi
barbarous state of what we call civilized So
ciety.-Hedrh and Home