The anti-monopolist. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1874-1878, 1878-01-10
SOMETHING IN THE OLD CLOTHES
tkE

When l look at pictures ofpeople of
old times, | often think what curl
Gus thing it is that the only apparent
difference between them and the peo-
pie of the present day is to be seen in
their clothes.
If we would take a dozen or so of
ancient Greeks and Romans; some
gentlemen and ladies of the middle
ages; a party of our great-grand-fath-
ers and mothers, and some nice people
who are now living in the next street,
and were to dress all the women in
calico frocks and sun-bonnets, and all
the men in linen coats and trousers
and broad straw hats, with their hair
cut short; and were then to tumble
them all up together, and make them
keep their tongues quiet, it would be
very difficult, if not impossible, for a
committee, unacquainted with any of
the party, to pick out the ancients,
the middle-agers, or the moderns.
| Lady Jane Grey, or Cornelia, the
mother of the Gracchi, or Helen of
Troy, would not look unlike the wo-
men in sun-bonnets and calico frocks;
and while there would be a greater
difference in the men, whose national
itv might show more strongly, Chris
TOPPER Columbus. Nero, and Marco
Bozzaris would be pretty much the
same kind of fellows as the other
men of the party.
1t is certainly a fact that there are
resemblance between the past ages
and ourselves than most of us suppose.
1t is often very surprising, when
reading of the domestic life of the
past. to see how precisely similar, in
some respects, it was to our own.
And, as l have said, the people looked,
with the exception of their clothes,
very much as we dO--meaning by
1--WE" the people of the present day.
all over the world.
In lS76,at the Centennial exposition
I saw Il marble bust life size--which
was Il portrait of lady of ancient
Rome. There was only the head and
neck. the hair was dressed very plain.
ly, and it was astonishing how well
that bust would have answered for
the portrait of a lady of Thirty-fourth
street. New York, or the wife of a
gentleman in Springfield, Ohio. The
head and face were just such head
and face as had often seen. and the
lcountenance even seemed familiar to
me.
But dress makes all the difference
in the world. Had l met that lady
attired in her flowing Roman gar
ments. with her golden head-dress
and her sandaled feet. l should have
had no thought of Thirtv-fourtf
street, or Springfield, Ohio.
And SO down the whole line of ages
you can tell. pretty nearly, when Z
man or womon lived. if you can get ar
idea of his or her clothes. The next
thing which strikes most of us wher
looking ut the pictures of old time
people. is feeling of wonder how
they ever could have been willing tt
make such scarce crows of themselves
To be sure. we are willing to adj
mire the lowing robes of Greece ant
Rome. although we feel quite sure
that our style of dress is much more
sensible. and we have an admiration
for a soldier clad in armor. as well a:
for theinoblemen and gentry who fig
lured. some years ago. in their splen
did velvets and laces. their feather!
and cooked hats. and their diamond
hilted swords.
But. as a rule. the garmets of on
ancestors appear very ridiculous 10 us
II we did not have good reasons TO
belief TO the contrary. we should h,
very apt 10 consider them set o
fools.
1t even seems little wonderful tina
people should he able to invent sucl
, curious fashions of dressing them
selves.-Paul Fort. ST. Nicholas 70
January.
II Jack Hunt was hung from a Madi
ls0nyille. Tenn. yesterday. for KILN,