The Ohio Democrat. (Logan, O. [Ohio]) 1886-1906, 1890-02-15
brought up suddenly in front Of atai,or,s

VI me-l Was prOlluC III lucas UnaUuay--
which finally shaped itself like this
The pater had given me 500, two new
suits and his blessing with which to
start the world on my own hook. If
| my conclusions were correct my best
chance was to make myself look as
citified as possible. / entered the shop
| and asked the price of various things,
| but could see from the style of the
man who waited on me that this was not
exactly first-class house and did not
order anything. After knocking about
for q while | came to another place
where the sign read: Tailor and Draper
and no goods were displayed in the win
dow. ] knew instinctively that my
search was ended and in 1 went.
"The salesman was q dignifed, even
pompous, old chap with Dundreary
whisl1ers and a bald head. He received
me as If / had been heir apparent to the
biggest packer in Chicago. Well, what
do you suppose did?"
"Give it up" replied the reporter, not
only interested but impressed to some
extent by the dudes philosophy.
81 just told him who / was, showed
him my letters and let him read one of
them. l then told him the conclusions
l had reached how much ready money
l had and asked him how the thing
could be managed. 1t was tolerably
callow act, I'll admit, but ! just hap
pened to strike the right man."
"Young sir" said the pompous party,
solemnly, ''you will succeed. You have
discovered for yourself most important
fact governing the whole social fabric.
Clothes do make the man and on first
impressions most of our success or fail
ure depends
"Before he let me go he had booked
my order for three suits of clothes at
S120 and accepted $50 down, giving me
time on the balance. Under his direc-
tions l bought hat, pair of shoes,
some collars and ties and other little
things, and ordered a copper-plate visit
ing card. BY the time got through l
only had about Sc left out of my hun
dred and knew that expenses must be
retrenched. l found room at IS a
month out near Garfield Park. / next
took my other 'suit' apd sold it for 81,
though it cost me $50. / then paid my
bill at the hotel and retired to my modest
little room to wait until my new clothes
were ready, the other things having
been delivered meanwhile, and very,
very cheap restaurant supplied the wants
of my inner man during the first year of
my Chicago experience. But to get on
with the story. When my new clothes
came home ! arrayed myself carefully
in the better of the two tweed suits, put
on a fashionable collar and tie, my new
shoes, which / had meantime broken
in and my new Derby Never was
Solomon in all his glory so thoroughly
well pleased with his personal appear
ance as | was with mine when | started
for down town / had sent my other
letters through the mail each accom-
panied by a card. OF course it was
hardly the correct thing to do, but it an
swered my purpose, and when l sent in
the fac simile of the card, received q
warm welcome, two invitations to din
ner, one to lunch right then and there
at Kinsley's, and bid to little in
formal gathering the next evening.
Before l slept / was engaged as clerk by
a large corporation at salary, to begin
on, of $50 per month, and to-day-whis-
per, my boy-I am engaged to the Sec
ond daughter of one of our high officials,
and the clothes did it,
"Sixty a month is not particularly
fat salary" suggested the reporter.
"Not absolutely running over with
OIL" agreed the dude with laugh, "but
it's wonderful what lot of things
f,,1 Go JN
money. During my first year here my
expenses were cut down as much as pos
sible. You see, as soon as / got into the
swim / kept right along. AS / had
position, / had no difficulty in per-
suading my friend with the Dundreary's
to let me have dress suit and light
overcoat, which he very decently gave
me at $40 for the two. This left me
owing balance of $130, which / re-
duced at the rate of $12 month. My
other expenses were: Rent So; laundry,
$3.50; eating, S10.50. This was light,
for seldom had to buy any thing but
breakfast and lunch. Car fare, SO. Then
for cigarettes and sundries / expended
about S4. This left me SO for very
occasional trip to the theater, flowers
for my lady friends, of whom / soon
had many, and other little social atten-
tions. But in spite of every thing,
saved $50 in the first year.
Don't your clothes cost you an awful
lot of money!" asked the reporter, after
he had verified the figures and concluded
that the dude must be strictly temper
ate animal.
"Very little, now. The man who is
careful can get three suits year and
always appear to have new ones. Rota-
tion in office is the grand secret of hav-
ing your things look nice. No garment
should be worn more than three days at
a stretch without rest to let the fiber
draw back to its place. With three suits
new every year, which cost me S12O, and
one overcoat, light and heavy one
can use an old suit for bad
weather, combine the new ones by wear
ing coat and vest of this with trousers
of that, and so give people the impress
sion that have no end of wardrobe.
"Clothes, he continued, meditatively,
after lighting a cigarette, ''clothes re-
quire deal of care. When you take
them off at night they should be brushed
and hung up. Always hang them up
out of the dust. Then the moment you
discover spot clean it out with little
alcohol and ammonia in equal parts.
That will remove almost any thing with
out touching the color of the fabric.
Then trousers too are to be treated with
onp,a nnaidorafinp Thay r,uot ba ,un,,,