The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1899-09-30
The Universal Urban.

Are there any more rustics cou ntrymen.
genuine hawbucks and chawbacons in the
United Statesp Hidden in remote corners
and perennially apar from cities. there
must be some, still You hear OF them from
novels. They are full of queer dialects and
clothes. in those novels. They are strangely
housed and have strange etiquettes and
customs, in the novels. Webelieve in their
existence firmly, for they are necessary.
May the day never dawn when indigenous
rural personages, bred OF the mountain and
the rock, shall be no longer required to
contribute local color in gigantic hunks
to stories, short and long.
The countrymen who run wild in woods,
we can find at the circulating library. The
countrymen who come to New York, itself
in large part settlement OF ruralists, Are
hopelessly cltified. This popularity has
often been noticed. 1t Is particularly notice
able in this town now. You see loud, big,
haring, Tapping, penthouse felt hat in the
crowd once in while. hat worthy OF the
Hon. JAMES STEPHEN HoGG OF Texas; but
who sets much store on hats nowadays?
Colossal felt hats are worn habitually in
New York by mild-mannered men who never
saw the South or the West, by clerks in sta
tonery shops, 10y buttermilk dealers as we'll
rs by statesmen. This year the soft hat
seems to be crowding out OF business its
harler-headed brother. and SO the East has
initiated the West, and the main differ
ence between the strictly urban and the less
conventional rural manner OF head gear
has vanished.
Geographers have not yet found any re-
gion Of the esrth to which the russell shoe
has not penetrated. The youth from Hig-
ganum, Conn, or Deaf Smith county,
Tex, has his trousers turned up in the
fashion which once might have brought a
shower OF rocks" on the incautious city
pilgrim lost in the innocence Of the fields
All spleAdors Of shirts, all sublime archi-
lecture Of collars, all witchery OF cravsts,
the man from the hamlet knows as well as
the man ON the Fifth avenue. He may he a
little later, but he is always in the process
aion. Years ago the boot with the high
legs, the ugly boot legs sticking out and
marring the symmetry of the trousers,
fingered in the backwoods. You see it in
Washington occasionally. In that city
many eccentricities OF bygone costume
may be found at the hotels. The race OF
ancient statesmen is not dead. But the
shoe, the universal. shapely American shoe,
has conquered. Hideous shoes are discov-
cradle in New York, but on the feet OF immi-
grants. In fact, to get rural costume
in New York, you must seek the immi-
grants or go to some OF the festivals
where they or their descendants initiate
the costumes Of the German or Italian vii
lagos from which they sprang. You may
get glimpse here, once in too long a
time Of some girl or woman with vast ear.
rings, or shining plaques and chains, or
rainbow petticoats, and go back for a
moment to Zealand or Albano In few
years everybody in Europe will be dressing
ike everybody else, and the Germans and
Italians may have to come here to see how
their peasants used to dress.
A uniformity, almost a uniform, Of good
| well-made, almost fashionable clothes can
| be seen in the crowds OF strangers now in
| this town. We speak of the mems clothes.
| or the " omens clothes, however correct OF
| cut or hue they might seem to the mere
man, no mere man should pres sumo to
speak.