Pine Bluff daily graphic. (Pine Bluff, Ark.) 1893-1942, 1894-06-23

ancient device useIuI IN It's tIIne-has
survived up to the present day al
though it is now quite useless, except
in the modified way of indicating. bv
specially colored ribbon on a straw hat.
membership ia certain club or society.
Ia some hats, which are badly made,
the original use of the band has been
entirely altered, and it now serves to
hide join between the crown and the
brim Of the hat. Perhaps the strings
of Scotch cap show most plainly the
now useless employment of once use
full device
Again, why are coekades and similar
ornaments worn on the left side of a
hat? The reason is simple but of very
ancient date. These ornaments are de-
scended from the larger ones, such as
plumes, etc, which were also worn on
the left side of the hat Look, for ex-
ample, at the cavaliers plume
Now, men who originally carried
such ornaments in their hats also car
ried sword by then. side. which had
often to be used in the right hand;
large projection ON the right side of
the hat would have interfered with a
free use of the sWord-hence the orna-
ment was placed on the left of the hat.
and this position is still adhered to,
although it is no longer useful. The
same reason also explains why hats are
cooked, if cooked at all, toward the left
side of the head
What is the meaning of the nick of
the collar in our coats and in many of
our waisteoats? In rougher times than
our own men were glad to turn up and
button the collars of both coat and
waistcoat, as we do now with certain
coats-not, however, with our still
nielzed waistcoats
Yet this nick is cut in our dress coats.
and in many other coats and waist
coats where its presence is of no use
whatever-owing toits positlon-net to
mention the fact that in these coats no
buttons are provided underneath the
cellar
We probably all know that the two
now useless buttons at the back of our
coats were once of real service when
men rode on horseback, of necessity
much more often than we do. These
buttons then served to fasten back the
tails of the coat, so as to give free play
to the legs of a horseman. But all our
tail-coats still show these buttons
which are quite useless to lis.
Take the folds of the cloth adjacent
to the entrance of the tail pockets of a
frock-coat, and of others. Years ago,
these plaits or folds were richly em-
broidered flaps over such vertical poclt-
cts and could be buttoned for safety.
Nowadays these folds are of no use
to us; indeed, they serve to guide the
hand of pielSpocket with ease, and
only by the sense of touch. We may
still see these ornamented flaps with
dummy buttons on the tails of coats
worn by our Coldstream guards
Look at the braiding, with Tapping
dogs ears" at each end of each braid,
which we see across the breast of mil
itary officers undress tunic Once upon
a time these braids were cords which
fastened the tunie. But they still ex-
list upon TUNES. which are fastened
down the center by unseen hooks
Nearly every coat we wear has either /
one or more seams stitched-quite use
lessly-round the sleeves few inches
from the wrist. Some have a piece of
braid instead of an imitation seam.
This item of dress is survival of the !
times when men habitually turned back |
and buttoned TIE cuffs of coat sleeve |
Many of the coats so used were made of
very expensive material, and then the +
turning back of the cuff was of some
use. Nowadays, with one or two excep-
tons, there remains only the useless
ghost of once useful detail of dress.
Top boots: why the turned-down up
per part stained brown? These riding
boots were originally made to come
above and protect the knee, and the
upper part was loosely turned down for
ease, and as the inside of the boot was
of unblaeked leather, so it looked I
brown But the modern top boot I
serves no such useful purpose, for its
part is a fxture-and use
less. But we see its origin.
Numerous other instances might be !
quoted or now useless items of dress
which were once useful. In many eases
it is easy to trace the origin of these,
for old prints of costumes will often
show us the original meaning and the
real purpose of curious items of our
everyday clothing .-London Tit-Bits.