Wichita eagle., 1888-06-06
TIE TEST OF TASTE.
Decking OF TIE HEAD AND DRAP.
ING OF THE FACE.

The Male Sava.e's Love OF Personal Or
Observation-Disclosures Artistic Taste.
Masculine Attire in the Middle Ages.
Boots, Gloves and High Hat.
The head has always been the test Of taste.
In civilized countries, where tailordom OBJ
tains and millinery means more than q
length of fringe and a string of beads, sleeves
have run the heads hard, and skirts have
made a good third Shoes, too, have not
been cut of it, and ornamentation has been
as conger1es of minor little imps fisking
about the bigger competitors for the wreath
of mingled feathers, flowers, lace and jewels,
made and offered by the genius OF bad taste.
From the earliest times when man first
finds that be has hands and can use them he
puts part of his newly acquired powers into
the decking of his head and the draping Of
his face Now he twists his hair into mon
strous shapes. standing cut from his scalp
like a hunchbacked aureole; now he contents
himself with a more symmetrical nimbus,
whereof each snaky stiifened ray extends be-
yond the breadth of his shoulders. Anon he
sticks a few feathers among the clay daubed
mass, and anon he lets it hang down in
greasy elf locks to his neck, taking care,
however, to travesty the natural shape Of his
head by filets which bind on to it every kind
OF frightful and ungainiy excrescence; or he
paints his face in patterns Of red and yellow
and blue or makes that painting permanent
with tattooing needles and indigo; or he
hangs heavy weights in his ears; or destroys
the shape Of his under lip; or does something
insane with bis teeth, or in some way dstorts
and disfgures himself under the name of or
namentation and with the idea of making
himself very smart fellow indeed.
In savage life it is the brave who thus
smartens himself up with most intention
The sQuaw follows humbly at q distance,
walking on the same road, but in narrower
groove, and with more modest mien. The
brave is the one who is zen evidence:" the
squaw has simply to work for his comfort
and bear children to ksep the tribe alive.
But he must strike terror into the hearts of
his enemies, as wen as make himself an object
of admiration to the docile females, who ac-
cept him at his own valuation, and are wooed
exactly as birds and beasts are wooed-one
part by the display of masculine charms,
another part taken by force Hence be
pranks himself out in paint and feathers-in
the teeth and claws and skins of the wild
beasts he has overconle-in the scalps of the
enemies he has slain-in this rude attempt TO
express a dawning artistic sense, and that
botch at ornamentatlon which is diSfig ure-
ment and not embellishments this way and
that be makes himself love worthy object
to the girls of his tribe; model to be here
after initiated TO the boys; terror to his
foes who count his deeds of proves by his
questionable trophies; and something i'm
measrrably hideoUs and disgusting to all
civilized Eolk with whom he comes in contact
This lavish personal establishment of the
mile savage continued far into the days of
civilization When the middle ages were
the wedge between classic times and modern
days we had mail clad nights with plumes of
portentous size and sweep, or close fitting
skin dresses left nothing to be desired in the
way of simple and something in the way
of modestv, wine the modicum Of human
force, witch can never be got rid Of ex
pressed itself in parti colOred legs, and shoes
that were surely the design of some maniac
at large. Hats and cloaks and purified
oreeches-points and tags and lace frills at
the wrists and knees-boots which would
have carried small child in the upper gap
curIet wigs that were intrinsically as ugly
as Zhlu's clay daubed NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.
that came nearly to the knees-breeches toe
tight for prarf,cable sitting-every kind o.
absurdity wnlcn bad taste could invent and
folly consent to wear, have we poor silly
humans undergone in our zeal for fashionable
martyrdom; and only quite of late years has
the masculine common sense declared itself
once for all in favor of simplicity and demo
cratic unity. and a costume that is useful
and possible to all alike.
But even now our exquisites torture them
selves in tight boots and tighter gloves, as
well as in glullotine collars; while that per
ennial high hat, which will not fade down to
It's roots whatever the cold blast of criticism
may blow on 1t, is the true survival of the
,avages wondrous headgear. Which brings
us round to the point Of our paper-the test
of the head-that last stronghold of bs..
taste and folly-that stumbling block of the
aesthetically weak. Here We have it still in
force With the comfortable, useful, unfine,
democratic and national body clothing Of
men, we have still this remnant of barbarism
this reminder of the time when the men of
the world made their hair into hunchback
aureoles, wore feathers such as we see in
Albert Durer, or full bOttoned wigs as in
the time of Queen Anne and the first three
Georges of England and wrecked themselves
on this fatal rock which is to good taste what
Snbad's Island Of loadstone was to all the
ships that sailed thereby.-New York Home
Journal