The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1891-04-26
TALKS FOR BOYS.
XVII.
By Colonel Thomas v. Knox.
Fashion and Disease.

A few days ago my attention was called
to the circumstance that among the deaths
in New York by the grip more than two
thirds of the number of victims were femi-
nine. Fashion is responsible for good
deal of this feminine mortality" said the
doctor who mentioned the subject cash
ion DEGREES that women shall appear in new
dresses and bonnets at Easter regardless of
the weather. If yon were on the avenue on
Easter Sunday, you doubtless saw great
numbers of these social butterflies who
Shivered in thin garments, though the day
was more like mid-winter one than many
days that we had during December and
January. Two of my patients came to
their deaths from colds caught dur
ing Easter week-colds which result
ed in grip, grip in pneumonia and
pneumonia in the cemetery. They regarded
fashion as more imperative than attention
to health and life and there are thousands
just like them in all the cities OF this c0un-
try and for the matter OF that all over the
civilized world. The Gar of Russia is far
less despotie than the leaders of fashion.
If cur Government exercised an authority
one-quarter as severe as that OF fasmon
there would be an uprising OF the people
from one end of the land to the other far
surprising the Revolution of 1776 in its in
tensity and in the determination to be free.
The autocrat of all the Russlas is charged
with sending every year thousands OF his
subjects to the scaffold or to Siberia without
trial, but he is far less cruel to those under
his authority than is the throneless despot
whose DEGREES are periodically issued
through the milliners and mOdistes and
always accepted without murmur."
Sewing Machine and Telegraph.
Speaking of fashion reminds me of the
witty remark Of somebody that the sewing
machine and telegraph are rapidly making
one people of all that dwell on the face Of
the earth. They are destroying the national
peculiarties of the dress of the men in the
countries of Europe by giving them the
styles of everyday clothing from London,
which is the great center of traffic for that
part of the world Ready made garments
from London are sold in the shops of Am
sterdam, Berlin, Vienna, Copenhagen.
Christiania, Stockholm and st. Petersburg
and in many OF the smaller cities, which OBJ
tain their supplies from the great ones on
the list OF from London direct. Formerly
an English sailor could be readily distln-
gushed from Danish or Swedish one, and
each of these from the other by his dis
tinctive costume but at the present time all
of them are dressed alike, and quite posi-
bly, their garments came from the same
factory. Fifty years ago the he. home ne
fered from those of the Western and
Southern States, and those again from
those of Canada, but nowadays the home
spun has been largely driven out by store
clothes which have found their way into
the great majority of the towns and villages
all over the land. The business of manu-
featuring clothing on the theory that every
garment that is made will fit somebody and
find a customer is increasing year by year.
and though the coats and trousers thus
created are sold at price that deies compe-
tition on the part OF tue weaver OF home
spun, the trade seems to be profitable one
for all concerned. In many of the large es-
Establishments the cutting is done with great
rapidly, the cloth being piled in thickness
of one or TWO hundred layers, which are cut
by fine saw that follows a metal pattern
under the guiding hand of a single operator.
Thus with the aid of machinery one person
does the work of fifty in the cutting of gar
ments; the sewing machine follows closely
and rapidly, and in this way the whole
world is clad With our clothing Of one pat-
tern, and the telegraph laying before us
every day all the news of the world, we are
not only dressing alike but thinking and
talking offhe same things at the same time.