The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-09-11
FIRST DRESS SURF IN CALIFORNIA.
a Pioneer Who Made "a Sensation in
sacramento.
From the San Francisco CAL.

From the San Francisco Call.
Just forty-nine years ago, in Sacra-
mento, Mr.. Almarin b. Paul, for many
years past and now resident of San
Francisco, and more than locally noted
mining engineer and authority on. all min
ing matters made a great hit.
For brief thirty minutes or so Mr..
Paul was the cause Of an entire suspen-
sion of business on the principal streets
of Sacramento, in those days when every
moment of a business hour was a golden
one.
He simply arrayed himself in such gar
mCntS a man of fashion in those days
would have worn. ana took a leisurely
walk along the principal streets of his
temporary home The result was chaos
business and social-for the entire period
of his rambe.
His costume was the epitome of elegance
from the top of his shining, tall beaver
hat to the tips of his patent leather boots
and the ends of his gloved fingers
California, in those days, had never seen
such; but had he been dressed in pink
tights and the fluffy skirts of a feminine
ballet dancer, he could not have created
a more genuine sensation.
Sacramento at that time was emphatl-
cally a "shirt and trousers town" In
population of 1900 or more there were
less than fifty white women, and the
men, feeling themselves free from all con-
Ventional restraints in the matter Of ex-
ternal adornment, dressed in the simplest
aud what seemed to them the most com
Portable fashion. Blue or red flannel or
checked Bingham or seersucker shirts,
buttoned at the throat or not, according
to the weather or the fancy of the owner
and with their neither eXtremitles tucked
into the waistband either Of trousers made
of the toughest and most servicea3le
cloth, or of stout and baggy oVeralls; a
pair of heavy boots, with tops reaching
TO the wearers knees, and almost any
kind of a hat that came handy-everybody
dressed in this fashion.
So universal was this custom of rough
garbing that it early became an unwritten
law in all the towns and mining camps,
and it was a long time, even after the first
gold excitement quoted down before a
billed shirt" was looked upon as being
anything but a proof of effeminacy and
general foohshness On the part Of its mis-
taken wearer.
Almarin b. Paul dearly loved joke He
was wen known and wen liked in Sacra-
mento, as he and his partner. under the
firm name of Paul, White & CO., had dealt
in general merchandise aud miners hard
ware since the previous November and it
struck mis- youthful fancy that he would
like 10 do something little out of the
common.
He had been q prosperous young business
man in 81 Louis before coming TO Califor-
MIA and when he packed his belongings
for his long trip the whim had seized him
to include among them a fun suit of
clothes of as Understandable cut as
St Louis tailor could provide
The coat was of the very finest and best
black French tweed. lined with heavy
black satin, with the collar, lapels and
cuffs hand embroidered in a most elaborate,
exauisitely designed and artistically exc
cuted pattern of leaf and bud and bloom
worked in iustrous black silk.
This was the GROWING glory of the at
tire in which Mr. Paul took his famous
promenade IN one side Of street and
down the other on that long celebrated
summer afternoon. And the men who posi-
bly, and indeed. probably would have jeer-
ed at the bashful and apologize appear
ance in their midst Of even one small devil
alton from the established order of things
in the straight and narrow way of mas
culine auire stood Simply spellbound be-
fore the aggregation of dazzling spendo:s
cf which young Paul was the motive pow
or
Il did it just as a piece OF fun" he says.
bur / didn't feel a bit funny after | got
the things on aud started out. Some Of
the other young fellows had kind of half
way dared me 20 do 1t, you see, and
thought it would be kind of a joke. II
was no Joke a all, though, ! found, for
a circus wouldn't be more stared at than
/ was Luckily there we're no little boys
GROUND then. or ! should have been the
head of a regular procession.
LAS il was 1 never felt SO much alone