The examiner. (Hartford, Conn.) 1881-188?, 1886-08-28
THE TAILOR.
THE TAILOR.
One of the First CaIlInss of C1v1IIza-
t1On-Hfs Goose Curious
Sayings.

Sayings.
Whether with Beecher we discard the
original Adam, fg-leaf raiment and the
Garden of Eden, or not, there must have
been time very early in the existence of
the race when the human animal felt the
necessity for clothing himself, and little
later when ne felt the necessity for cloth
ing himself in becoming manner. When
that happened the tailor came into being.
But useful citizen he is, and long es-
ts.blished his craft has been. himself
and his trade have furnished fertile
themes for the wits and satirists. His
honesty is questioned, his valor derided,
his manliness impugned, and his horse
manship has been a laughing stock since
the days of John GiIpin. Scarce writer,
from Shakspere to Carlyle, has failed to
try his hand on Snip, the tailor, or some
of his shortcomings. and one OF the Oldest
sayings in the language declares that lit
takes nine tailors to make man." This
laying is found in other languages also,
slowing that it must have had an origin
n some parent language, OF that the idea
itself has it's foundation in human nature.
Indeed, in Hanover the saying is that
twelve tailors make a man, while in other
parts of Germany the number is thirteen.
The modes of applying this saying by
the wits and retailers of jokes, are almost
endless. Carlyle, in his ''Sartor Resartus,"
('The Tailor Patched says: "Does it not
stand on record that Queen Elizabeth, on
receiving ES1sk9utation of eighteen tai1ors,
addressed them with Good morning,
gentlemen BOTH And did not the same
virago boast that she had cavalry regi-
ment whereof neither horse nor man
could be injured; her regiment being
tailors mares ?''
A gentleman accepted challenge from
tailor, and when they met on the field
he asked: "Where are the other eight ?''
A celebrated English orator, who was not
particular about the source of his jokes,
once said: GAS mo man puts new cloth
upon an old garment 9 tailor cannot be
a man."
The investigators and Dryasdusts have
ascribed this curious saying to various
origins. One says it is because of the
effeminacy of the employment; another
says that it originated with a wooden
draper who said that the custom of nine
tailors would make, or enrich, one man.
But the tailors say, and they are doubt
less in the right OF it, that nine tailors
once upon time dubbed together and
assisted q poor fellow in business. He,
thus getting a start, afterward gained a
fortune and adopted the motto: mine
tailors made me man." And 1t is in
that sense that the saying should be read,
say our good friends the tailors Indeed,
in still another sense the tailor makes
many a man, for what would some of us
be without good clothes. You may be
possessed of all the virtues, yet. if you are
in threadbare and shabby suit, you will
be regarded with suspicion. Your friends
will look askance at you. the spoilers"
in hotels and restaurants will watch you:
if you try to buy anything you will be ex-
pected to show your money, or pay in adj
vance, and generally you will be treated
with contempt if not with derision. But
get tailor to fix you out, and then note
the change! He makes man of you, and
you feel it every moment of the day. So
the saying should be, that one tailor
makes many men,
The tailors themselves have given the
again in the number of able who
have commenced life on @the tai1or's
board. Can we forget our own Andrew
Johnson, who, whatever his foibles, was
by no means fractional parsonage /? To
q deputation of tailors who waited upon
him when he was President he declared
that the most pleasant hours of his life
were those he had spent in his tailor
shop. One of the great British admirals
was tailor, and there have been learn ed
tailors as we'll as learned shoemakers, as
our literature very fully discloses.
1t has often been remarked that while
most handicraftsmen when questioned as
to their business will reply, GA mason"
II
tailor replies: ''I am a tailor by trade"
Andrew Johnson when once jeered at
because of his former occupation, replied:
f,dam was tailor by trade" Why they
answer in this form has not been satisfaC.
torily settled, though it probably origin
selves from the Tai1or's Guild in London,
which is composed of people who are not
tailors at all.
The art of the tailor lies in cutting and
pressing, the latter being the more i'm
portant; for a badly cut garment may be
pressed into a good shape, while careless
pressing will ruin the most artistic cut,
SO that the tailor's goose is his most i'm
portant implement. 1t is called a goose
because its handle resembles the neck Of
the bird that is said to have saved Rome,
but the plural Of it has always been "a
puzzle to tailors. So much so, that nc
tailor ever dares to order more than one
at a time, if he wants to save his reputa
ton for exact knowledge of English. A
tailor had occasion to order two and did ii
in this way. He first wrote: "Dear Sir:
Please send me two tailor's geese" That
can't be right, said he, and tried again:
"Please send me two tailor's gooses."
Neither can that be right thought he, and
so in his desperation he wrote "Dear SIR
Send me one tailor's goose. and, dammit,
send me another just like it," He never
tried the experiment. again.
He Didn't Make Sale.
A gentleman who was several years
younger than his wife, and who was, be-
sides, small and rather boyish in appear