The morning call., 1893-04-23
Weekly Call. 81 per Year
A STUDY IN OVERCOATS.
Foreigners Parade in All Sorts of
Peculiar Covering.
SSuiui NOfSliuSs
HarnRr'g wRekIv

harper 8 Weekly.
The inland cities Of America, like those
of other countries of the world, are pro-
vincIal when compared with the capitals on
the tidewater. and TO which foreign ships
frequently go. London contains every day
so many foreigners that n man. TO excite
any interest there, would have to be strange
indeed. An American Indian in red
blanket ami with feathers in his hair had
power, until few years ago. to make pedes-
TRANS on the streets of London turn round
and stare. But since the visits of Colonel
William +. Cody with his Wild West show
neither Sioux nor COmanche would attract
more than passing glance in Oxford street
or Piccadilly.
To make LOndoner turn round and look
nowadays man would have to array hin-
self In the full dress Of an African chief-a
breech cIOut aud q high silk hat. Ii may be
that the traditional uniform of Georgia
major might excite some remark, if not
alarm. And so in New York the ships that
sail IN bring so many strange visitors that
the eyes If New Workers have become
famllia: with the dress Of men, il matters
not how Tar their homes may be from this
western world. But it is a new thing In
Chicago for men from all parts of the world
10 elbow each other in tile Hobbies of the
hotels. The Columbian Exposition has
attracted to the shores of Lake Michigan
men from nearly every foreign country
have generally been such as have been sent
TO prepare official exhibits. As public en-
ployment in almost every other country
than the United States attracts the best
men, IL is probably safe to conclude that
the foreigners one now sees in Chicago are
excellent types Of their respective cOun tries.
ms has been hard winter in Chicago
and he who had TO brave the weather al
jackson Park needed to dress with great
care. Mr.. de ThulStrup has already shown
4 "a orr NJ In hi
to wrap himself up to ward off pneumonia
and rheumatism. Though there are none
others quite so constantly exposed us the
gripmen, still many others found fur coats
good things to wear. The bother about
FUR coat Is that when one gets accustomed
to wearing it it has to be worn will great
constancy. Therefore, when the artist
looked about him in the hotel lobby he
usually saw many men still wearing their
furs. though, as everybo knows, hotel
lobby Is nearly always kept at a tempera-
ture approXimating so deg.
In Chicago OF an evening at the Audito-
rum. the Pacific. the Palmer House or the
Wellington are to be seen men in many va
rieties If furs. We see the shaggy buffalo.
the silky seal and the curled aStrakhan.
These three predominant, the buffalo being
seen most frequently, and then the seal, and
then the aStrakhan. But the skins of many
other animals are used in making these
great coats, even the humble rabbit skin be-
iAe sOuleliHieS UIuu8iI into TpQulSltl0u. ana
also the fox and the beaver ana The deer,
man wearing a conventional silk hat
and the ordinary everyday clothes of an
ordinary man cannot but look in half
masquerade when he puts on top coat Of
fur. But IN Chicago in mdwinter such
costume would excite no remark whatever.
Chicago will never he the same city that II
was after this fair. Foreign customs are
already creeping liz to modify the old-time
democracy, and, once community is thus
inoculated, it never resumes its earlier sim
picity. In Philadelphia every one dined az
o'clock till 1876; now the dinner hour is
the same as London and Paris. They who
twenty years ago would be known at a
glance for what they were are now citizens
of the world, and at home in any part of 1t.
Chicago, never so provincial as Philapel
pha, will undergo the change which touch
with the great world brings more easily
and quickly than the Quaker City did, but
the change will probably be as great in
habits and customs, and extend even to the
universal wearing of fur coats in winter.