Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1885-04-15
DEATH IN FULL DRESS.
The Danger OF Wearing - Costume THAT
Is Not Adapted to This Climate.

The Danger OF Wearing - Costume THAT
Is Not Adapted to This Climate.
A letter from Philadelphia woman
who has married abroad conveys the in
teresting information that the Prince of
Wales recently appeared at an evening
entertainment wearing high-buttoned
frock-coat. Only one who has lived
abroad and felt the weight of the
British love for swallow-tails and higl.
hats can appreciate the daring of
Albert Edward innovation. Il is de-
voutly to be hoped. however, that all
true Britons will follow the fashion set
by him in this, as in other respects, and
then, of course, the Anglo-maniacs who
are supposed to show us on this side
wha$ to wear will take up the mode.
Experience has taught some of us that
swallow-tau coats and low-cut vests
are not adapted 10 this climate. One
of the loveliest women of Philadelphia
is at this moment mourning the loss of
her only son, an intellectual, delicately-
organized boy, who died of pneumonia
brought on by exposure to draught at
dance. He is not by any means the
only one whose evening dress has been
his shroud. A fashionable physici an
who declines every invitation that
would necessitate his getting into the
customary full dress tells me that the
opening of the social season ALWAYS
sees a great increase in the number of
his patients suffering with pulmonary
troubles. The fact that this increase is
not due to the weather simply is shown
by the other fact that with the Begin
ming OF Lent, when fashionable enter
tainments are modified or given up al
together, the number of patients falls
OIL and continues to grow smaller until
Casters when up it goes again. An
operate season Is always, he says, q
period OF coughs. catarrh, and incipi-
ent consumption. Aside from the mat
ter of climate, the danger to the Amer
lean society man, my physician tells
me, is greater by the fact that he is sell
dom respectable tramp, but is pretty
sure to be an active professional or
business man. He goes to his office or
counting-room in the morning heavily
clad, as he must be to meet the rigors
of the elements, and remains so all day.
At six, when the sun has gone down
and the thermometer has dropped, he
comes home. exchanges his thick warm
clothing for the light and open swal-
lOw-tail, and Sallies off to a dinner or a
ball. In the latter case he viii proba-
bly, be returning just before dawn, the
very coolest time of all the twenty-four
hours. There never was a carriage
invented that could keep out all
draughts, and if one is obliged to fore
go the comfort of closed vehicle there
IS the added danger to be apprehended
from snow and rain and slushy streets
and sidewalks. While the fashion of
full dress lasts it will of course ALWAYS
have an army of followers, and there
are some precautions that it will be
well to observe. 1t is good thing TO
have a heavy flannel or perforated
buckskin cnest protector to be worn
under the linen only when Il swallow
tail is donned. 1t is good too, to wear
another outside the linen, so that it
may be removed and put into an over
coat-pocket when ones destination is
reached, and readjusted on again going
out of doors. Despite all precautions,
however, one might just as well under
stand that a certain number of men
must die of the swallow-tail every sea-
-Ebi{atl3lDhld Letter.