The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-02-05
ABOUT THE DRESS SUIT.
ITS CUT AND APPEARANCE OF
VALUE TO THE SOCIETY MAN.

ITS CUT AND APPEARANCE OF
VALUE TO THE SOCIETY MAN.
/ Two Swells Discuss It-One is on his
Twentieth, Showing That He Has
| Been Very Much in the Swim, and
for Long Time-The Fate of One
Traced to che BIc.
From the Washington STAY.
Are you on your fourth or tifthm
| The strange question was put by one
| bowling swell to another IN the hearing of
a writer for the Star the other evening.
/ What did he meant A man can be on his
/ fourth or fifth decade Of life, and be 40 or so
years old, or he can be on his fourth or fifth
matrimonial venture, and in that case death
or the divorce court has been kind to him
above the general run of men. He may, IL
he is reckless man, be on his fourth or
fifth essay at a tumbler OF intoxicant, and
if that is the state of affairs he is In danger
Of talking too much. or. perhaps, Of not be-
ing able to talk at all. But the man ad-
dressed understood the remark perfectly,
for he replied at once:
MY dear fellow, am on my twentieth.
OF course, IL he was on his twentieth de-
cade he would be 200 years old, and it was
| clear that he was not more than 40 10 be
on ones twentieth venture in metrimony
would be to beat Blue Beard or Henry VIII.
No man could or would accomplish the feat
| OF getting married once year for twenty
years; and if a man was on his twentieth
drink be would be so drunk that be would
not be able to answer questions.
| You say you are on your tweutiethW
said the first speaker. You really are
doing we'll. And what has become of the
| old ouesn
A CURIOUS CALCULATION.
This as getting little palmer. 1t began
TO look as though clothes were being dis
cussed. But u man OF 40 has worn at least
100 pairs Of shoes in his life and about It's
pairs OF trousers and about $50 shirts and
about 1000 collars and about 5000 cuffs.
He has USED up, if he is gifted with the care
tulnesS OF the average man, l,O4O collar
| buttons, which allows him the luxury of
losing one a week for twenty years. He
has gone through acout 1000 stockings and
between rs and 100 hats. He has destroyed
about $50 cravats and about 400 pieces of
underwear. HIS total destructiveness in
forty years has thus amounted to at least
s, 295 pieces. Allow his shoes TO have aver
aged 81 pair. his trousers IS, his shirts
81 25-but the calculation is getting too
complicated and statistical 1t is safe to
say at a rough guess that his clothing has
cost at least $1,000. If he had never worn
clothes and the money spent on them had
been saved he would have been worth a
very respectable little fortune.
1T WAS A DRESS SUIT.
Now, a glance at the above figures will
convince any Ope that no ordinary article
of mans apparel was alluded to when the
swell said he was on his twentieth. The
truth came out at length. These two men
of fashionable society were simply talking
of their dress suits and they were using
them thus in fgurative sense to express
the number Of years that they had been lin
society" The man who had on his
twentieth dress suit had begun early in
life and had given himself no rest, for he
must have worn out one dress suit a wear in
his twenty years career, and to do that he
must have worn it night after night.
Let the solid domestic man, whose enter
tainments are not numerous and seldom OF
the grand order which are denominated
"dress suit affairs" reflect upon the fact
that there are some men in the world who.
by the time they have reached middle life,
have spent 81 $40 in the purchase of swal-
low-tail coats, and there are yet others who
have spent a great deal more than that upon
this garment. The sum would be sufficient
to make the first payment on a house and
lot or would carry boy through two years
of a college course. Ii would take a man to
Europe and give him the benefit of several
months Of interesting travel 1t would fur
nish house very comfortably or it would
be a great boon to an orphan asylum. There
are really great many things that one
could do with 81 800 beside spending the
money for dress suits.
THE DOMESTIC MANS ONE SUIT.
Now, the solid domestic man probably
has one old dress suit that he got married
in, and perhaps once or twice year. upon
some gala occasion of extra solemnity, be
puts on this old suit. The odor of respect
| ability clingssto it, as well as the odor OF
the camphor in which it has been preser ved
He is not comfortable in it, and it must be
expressed that he never was comfortable in
it. He has a sort Of dream of 1t, and well
he may have, for ID is associated In his mind
with awkward feelings When he wore il
the first time, at his wedding, he felt de-
cdedly awkward, as a groom invariably
does, and since then his figure has enlarged
perhaps, and the dress suit has remained
of the same size. The cut il
q little anbiquated, but thai
does not matter, as all dress suitS resemble
each other, and the garment that was the
fashion forty years ago would pass muster
even at the present day. Nevertheless, the
dress suit expresses an idea to the domestic
man, Just as il does to the fashionable man.
The former never sees it but what he thinks
of the day when he first wore it, and the
happiness CT his married life it is TO be
hoped, makes him forget in some degree
the extreme torture he endured when be
stood up before the audience and went
through the marriage ceremony. In this
way, although he hates 10 wear the old
dress suit, he likes to know that it is still
part OF his belongings.
But to the fashionable man it expresses
jolly times out of number. II it could talk
it would tell of dinner parties, dances and
suppers out of number. IC is a sorry day
for a swell when he gets in place where
he can't wear a dress suit.
IT SAVED one MANS REASON.
Here is a little story about this that came
to the writer from the lands where there used
to be buffalo and where are now booms aud
real estate agents-the great and boundIess
west. he went away from Washington
where he had been for many years one OF
the leading lights of society. No party was
complete without him, aud conversely II
may be said that he never had a complete
feeling without party. 1t was dreary
enough little town that he went to in the
west. and the parties there were few and
far between, and were Of a most primitive
order. The Washington man used to sit
over his fire in the evening and think OF
what was going 90 - the gay capital. He had
it all mapped out in his mind, and he knew
lust what evenings it was probable his
old friends had selected for their dinners OF
| THAR Cermans He had the Star sent to