The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1889-03-21
WINTER DRESS,


inch part. The advantage OF the arrange
ment is the interposition of a medium OF warm
air between the skin and the outer garment.
Not the substance of our wearing material
warns US, but the air (warmed by the influence
of our own body which it holds inclosed, thus
surrounding US with acomfortable atmosphere of
our own, like that which accompanies our planet
on its travels through icy space. For the same
reason wide mittens no matter what material,
feel warmer than tight fitting gloves. Tight
Winter shoes freeze as well as pinch our feet.
Double board walls make warmer house than
single brick walls. Besides being cheaper, the
combination blOuseS are much moro conven-
lent for outdoor work. l have tried the plan,
and have found that linen Lighthouses of an ag-
gregate weight of five pounds, and no way I'M
peding the free movement of the arms, were
actually more comfortably warm than To-
pound overcoat that would Cypress a laborer or
sportsmen like coat of mail Natures plan
is the same. Between the skin and the long
outer hair, or the outer cover of firmly imbri-
Gated feathers, she interposes lining OF loose
down-at once the lightest and the warmest OF
all Winter dresses. Tanning wadding and
doublelining make our fur coats impermeable
to the exhalations of the body disadvantage
of which the Havre blouse is as free as gauze
vail.
SUMMER DRESS.
But in Midsummer, when those exhalations
fabrics can be really comfortable. Broadcloth III
the dogdays-though prescribed on all sorts of
ceremonial occasions-is monstrous outrage
upon the patience of much enduring Nature.
The Hindoo fakirs try to expurgate the faint of
original sin by squatting down naked between
two blazing fires, while the thermometer sports
among the nineties. But in their primitive
condition those tough enthusiasts can hardly
be more miserably uncomfortable than pie
thoric Western gentleman attending fashion
able Summer ball. In warm weather, under
the load of superfuous trappings prescribed by
idiotic fashion, not perspiration, but the benefits
Of perSpirGtiOn, are almost wholly confined to
our faces aud hands. Everywhere else, the ex-
halations rising necessarily from the relief
seeking skin, are held back, saturate our cloth
ing, and thus tend to make those clothes still
more impermeable. The chief purpose of the
pores, intended to supplement the functions of
the lungs is thus efectually defeated The
few uncovered parts of the body have to do
their best to supply the deficiency, and conse-
quently perspire like steam-condensers. Any
one who chooses to try it can convince himself
by asimple experiment that the discomfort in
cident to the high temperature of the outer
atmosphere can be avoided by wholly negative
measures Hunt up solitary range of hills
and walk uphill in q blazing Summer sun. But
as soon as the ascent begins to get laborious,
strip to the waist, and perspiration will almost
but by being more evenly distributed. For now
the teguments of at least half the body get a
chance to cooperate with those of the face;
the humid exhalations evaporate as soon as
they reach the surface of the skin, and thus
help to reduce the temperature of the system.
The organism cools itself by a moist cuticle as
we cool the hot brow of a fever patient with
moist towel. The sun still feels perceptibly,
but not unpeasantly, hot, while every stir of
breeze seems as refreshing as cool bath. The
vertical sun has lost its terrors. Thus, in
new form, reveals itself the strange truth that
our worst earthly miseries are the non natural
and self-inficted The builders of the Pyra-
mids, who worked in the costume of the mer-
maids suffered probably less from warm weather
than many a modern dandy on a so-called
pleasure-trip.
MISCELLANEOUS SUGGESTIONS.
The old Saxon leather belt, now so utterly
out of fashion, had the advantage of distribut-
ing the burden of heavy clothing; it made
the hips bear part of the weight; now our
shoulders have to shoulder it all. On solitary
rambles, as in hunting and prospecting, it can
do no harm to resume the sensible plan, and
Tighten the lung-compressing weight of big
mantle Hunting pouch carriers can tighten
their burden in the same way. Even a stout
buckle can make suspenders practically super
fious A less known, though very simple and
useful, continuance is the dbadka, or arm-elout,
of the Servian lumbermen. In the intervals
of their hard work they rest their right arm in
a sort of bag-shawl hanging three cornered
from the shoulder by two straps, and enabling
the ebow-ioin to assume the easy L-shape
without having to support the weight of the
| forearm. Hanging arms feel heavy, not only
! because the blood tends towards the extremity
| but because all the upper muscles and sinews
are then in state of tension. No quadruped
| could straighten its forelegS from the shoulder
| wit ctr
| ance Few persons would find it easy to sleep
| with Strengthened arms. In sitting we rest our
arms on our lap or on the cushions of an arm,
chair. But in standing or leaning about as
| outdoor laborers are often obliged to do, an
! dbadka once tried, becomes Indispensable and
can be made as easily as a common arm-sling
| used in hospitals), which it resembles in the
| plan of its construction.
All tight Dress garters, stays and cravats,
may become injurious, and here again America
could teach the old world some useful lessons.
| OF any all-the-year- round dress that could be
devised, the every day uniform of the United
States Infantry is about the most sensible
while the absurdity of the old-style European
rib-squeezer jackets was equally difficult to
| surpass. Not more than 30 years ago an Aus
trian grenadier had to wear a veritable strait
Jacket reinforced at the throat by stock -
a leather implement of torture-that compress
ed his neck like the collar of garotte His
|
garters afflicted his calves with varicose veins.
Things have since mended Experience has
proved that soldier can fight better in a
blouse than in cholze-jacket; and experience
should have proved long ago that wedding
guest or New Years caller can be a gentle
man without wearing suffocating cravat.
Ready-made shirts, unexceptionable in other
respects can nowadays be bought for two or
three dollars, but very few can be bought that
way-not even nightshirts-tha could be but
toned around the neck and worn with any
thing like comfort for five minutes together.
The ideas of responsibility and tight neck wear
seem somehow to have become hopelessly con-
catenated.
81 shall not attempt to explain why damp or
wet clothes cause cold" says Ben Franklin
because / doubt the fact 1 suspect that
neither the one nor the other contributes to that
/ effect and that the causes of colds are totally
independence fwet, oreven ofcold." (Franklin's
Essays, page 215.) The danger of an occasional
drenching Except in its effects on a shoddy
coat has, indeed, been strangely exaggerated
There are people who would as soon think OF
exposing themselves to the fre-ran of Mount
Stromboli as to common April shower. Pull
monary complaints, they imagine would be
the inevitable consequence. Yet people who
have taken that risk know better. Oregon
woodchoppers laugh at the showers of their
web-foot climate. and dry themselves by hard
work. But for the sake of comfort all out