The Van Buren press. [volume] (Van Buren, Ark.) 1859-1914, 1898-02-12
HARToeS DEFINED.
Definition of a TefA& with Which
Americans Are Not Familiar.

Americans Are Not Familiar.
What are hartogs2 For the defni-
ton of this admirable word we must
turn to contributor to recent Globe.
"Clothes," he wrote, that are less i'm
posing and more comfortable than any
others are hartogs. To be old is not
snfficent nor is it enough that they
are easy To be hartogs they must COM
bine both these merits. Good clothes
when they grow baggy and faded be-
come hartogs: bad clothes, never. In
ferior and ill-ftting clothes become
merely odd elo.' The derivation of
hartogs is a secret, but all philologists,
and all who, like Mr.. Stevenson, have a
love of lovely words will recognize in
the term a neologue of singular fitness
and attraction. Think about it for a
minute or two, and you will realize that
clothes of the kind described above
could not possibly he known in any
other way. They are hartogs-iust
hartogs, and nothing else. Old clothes
of the common type one thinks of with
out affection, but hartogs are beloved.
Anything is good enough to cover
nakedness; lartogs do more-they con-
fer cheerfulness and responsibility;
they fit the wearer for freer life.
yet it must be understood that
bartogs are never absolutely disrepu-
table, never so old that one cannot meet
the wears wife without shame. y
In ordinary life, however, the wearer
of hartogs disdains coats and maekin-
toshes, except in extreme stress Of
weather. 1t is the winds and rains of
heaven and the might of the sun that
have made Lartogs what they are; the
indoor life produces a very inferior re-
suit. Your best hartogs are stamped
by the universe itself. You cling to
hartogs because you love them, not be-
cause you cannot afford others-they
must not be associated with poverty.
Some persons mark Sunday with
them. They are the garb of the wise
traveller. You meet hartogs on Hell
vellyn and among the Langdale pixies;
you recognize them in the Black Forest
and on the Gemmi; you are aware Of
them in the Trossachs and beneath the
smooth rotundity and swelling undnla-
tions of the South Downs. Natures
best lovers WOO her in hartogs."
This definition should be exhaustive
enough for any intellect; and yet lit
tie may be added. 1t should be said, for
instance, that few women have enough
courage to achieve hartogs. The mass
dare not. There are also men who dare
not, and there are men whose position
is against it. Bishops, probably, have
no hartogs.
OF all hartogs the coat is the most
dearly priced One cannot feel affec-
tionately toward a waistcoat; there is
nothing lovable about a waistcoat; but
a coat becomes friend, brother. Men
have worn coats for decades. A satisfy
ing coat is worth its weightin platinum,
because 1t is so rare. The waistcoat is
within the compass of any tailor, and
passable trousers are TO be bought
where you will; but coat is different.
Nothing is quite so disgusting as the de-
| termination of ones tailor TO have his
| own way in the matter of the coat. You
| order dozen personal touches; you
stipulate for no pads in the shoulders;
for deep collar, to turn up in wet or
cold; for extra pockets inside; for no
lining in the back; for no fashionable
antics in the cutting. And the tailor
smiles and smiles. None the less is he
| a villain, for when the coat comes home
it is precisely what you struggled to
make certain 1t should not be. A tailor
who will obey to the1etter is more than
rubies. Hence the lovableness of a
truly good coat.-Cornhill Magazine.