Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1891-07-11
!, l-nce Of Tie Evening Star.
BFLEAsr, IRELAND. in

BFLFAsr, Ireland. June %, 1891
nNE OF THE STRANGE CUSTOMS THE
~ American finds when he visits the land Of
Johnny Bull and his family Is that o; requiring
the patrons OF the post office to deposit their
mail from outside the building, through
aperturs- provided for the purpose. You buy
your stamp inside. Of course. but to mail
your letter you step outside. Across
the front of the Dublin post Office, for
instance. Is 9 long row Of spertures. CLASH
fed according to destination OF mail, by
appropriate plscards. which stare at you as
you approach and seem to say, at is, sor.' in
response to your mental inquiry whether
this Is really the place for you to post your
letter post letters over here, never
mail them. Whatever superiorities there be
IN the English postal system one will learn
when he comes TO purchase domestic post
card won notice it isn't postal card that in
addition to the stamp value of one half-penny
he Is charged an extra farthing for the card
itself so that for the English equivalent Of
cents he gets but two pOstals.
One naturally falls to comparing everything
he sees with the American article. The field of
comparison Is large and varied, but let US take
the postnIAn- The English pOstman Is, to our
mind. hardly type of beauty adorned. Per
hAps II is the cap. an e1aSSeration OF our mill
French soldiers kepi-thst detracts so
much from the loneliness Of the ensemble.
les, 1t must be the cap. The dark blue
uniform, the coat sack, sometimes
cat a la fToek ii the back. has Just enough red
cord and facing TO give II a rather cheap and
tawdry appearance. but II might look much
better hs more attention been given TO the
fitting ami less to the decoration AT Dublin
the metropolitan police relieve the omEl pres
eai coust.bulary OF such trifing duties az the
-. 81.
dTGnks and disorierlies. &c. In fact one sees
comparatively little of the constabulsry In the
north sad east OF Ireland. the Outhern and west
ern sections M st needing restraining influences
and receiving the lions share Of attention The
Dublin pollCe-wc!i ws think there must have
been an error in the original design of the uni
form coat. Yet ITS short skirts and the belt
worn high give thee mirions % the Law
dOubly tall and long legged appearance
CASTE AND CORDUROY.
We are inclined TO be specially critical on the
clothing question since the IRISH have in various
ways shown their disaPproval Of our corduroy
bicycling suits No one but the workingmen
wears corduroy. or rather no one else wears it
because workIngmen do.
Our exact status has for this reason been a
question 90 some dOnbi In the minds of the
native El-ss their hearts. they have an eve
Tor the fitness Of things even If they are down
tlOdden- We remember with what searching
questioning looks the pOrpOus lackey. the
nall porter We think he Is called al a certain
DubiIn hotel received us. Clearly he did
not approve of the corduroy. We re-
member how the portly old buffers and
the Pordy old hens whom we encountered in
tie dining room glanced askauce at US.
tl-ariy they did not approve OF ihe corduroy
let cOrinrOy does not seem 20 be universally
worn by the working man. From our obser-
Natlon We shollt -ay 20 - rather uncommon
Bat he mul:.iuie Of little upper classes. the
"tdPPencs ha penny" aad the --thres-penny.'
~ they were explained TO Us. have assigned
corduroy 20 the I1west-the working servant
class-a.d that settles the matter