Omaha daily bee., 1902-08-24
OF THE TROUSERS
Origin and Evolution Of the Male Les
Coverings Of To-day.
BADGE or DEMOCRACY RUDELY JEEREO
Knee Breecbes Fought the Long Car
ment and Perished by the Way
Observation-Disclosures Into
the United States.


the United states.
This year is the centenary Of the OF the
adoption OF the long leg covering known
first as pantaloons and then as trousers.
Like the name OF the man who designed
the Pyramids, the name OF the man who de-
signed the hrst pantaloons, is forgotten, but
| the achievement OF his brain
has impressed itself on the world from tho
car Of Russia to the meanest digger In
the meanest ditch in the United States.
As with many other inventors, he found
II impossible to push his great device. and
perhaps his genius never would have been
| appreciated by the world II the great son
OF George III had not bent his mind to the
task.
He was the admired Of all England as
the prince of Wales. He was Beau Brum-
mel's Friend George" and mighty proud
OF the honor, except on occasions when he
happened TO be peevish. He had achieved
the bHilliant invention Of a new shoe
buckle and he mad been chased over a gar
den wall by a husband who did not appre-
ciate his royal presence. So his glory was
effulgent enough, without his seeking more
laurels still. But his was an indefatigable
mind and needed large subjects to I'LL it
The long pantaloons did It.
In 1902 the pantaloon was without honor.
The exquisite laughed at It and the COM
mon man despised 1t. II any impious per-
son had dared to suggest to any of the
my lords Of hat day and they exchange
their knee breeches and silken stockings
for this hideous garment-but nobody
dared to suggest II.
George, however, was hard pressed. His
serene conviction that he was the leading
beau Of the age was being clouded at times
by sarcastic remarks about him by the
other beaus, who never could be brought
to consider George seriously as a real
swell dresser" with the exception OF the
magnificent effort in the shoe buckle line.
George had not succeeded in originating
any new mode, but had been forced to con-
tent himself with wearing what some
other beau had first made fashionable.
Govt q Possible Factor.
Historians who have studied the weighty
subject of his reign add that George and
many of his courtiers were afflicted sadly
with govt, which is not unreasonable when
one considers some Of the quiet and ele-
CANT dinner parties that he loved, like the
one Of which Thackeray tells, when
George, then prince regent his brothers
and other equally refined and kindly gen.
tlemen conspired successfully to make the
gray-haired duke Of Norfolk blind drunk.
This gout caused unseemly swellings and
protuberances on the noble legs, making
them unpleasant objects when incased in
tight and thin SILK stockings. Ana George
was q royal Simon Tappertit so far as his
pride In his legs was concerned. There
fore, by becoming the patron of the pan
faI0nn Ga0rOa nj 0na hlOw NnuId aaftafv
both his ethical pride as a beau and his
manly vanity as the most beautiful male
human object in his realm.
The pantaloon could have found no more
powerful supporter. For 1t was then the
badge of democracy, the garment Of the
sans culotte Of the French revolutions; and
II was only a great exponent of royalty
who could have dared to press its claims.
Although the pantaloon had won adherents
throughout France, 1t was palpably worn
less as a matter OF fashion than of politics.
In that bizarre period Frenchmen dressed
their hair and their wives and their dogs
and their legs according to their political
and religious beliefs.
The young l~ong-haired democrats of
France were about as unlovely objects as
might imagine. Their pantaloons were
bags, shaped in the unimaginative
form of sausage castings, hanging on the
limbs like signals OF distress and Tapping
dolefully az the wearer walked. They
were thigh waters" ending we'll above the
ankle and showing a waste of stocking
clad ankle.
Sympathy with the aims Of democracy |
many young persons of ideals to
garb themselves thus atrociously. But the
cruel deeds Of the revolution had aroused
general horror that, even If the fash |
ion had been beautiful, 1t probably would
met with enmity as being a symbol
Of the Red Terror. Being s~trikingly, com
pletely and hopelessly ugly, It did not
any way at all outside OF France
worth mentioning. Jefferson brought the
pantaloons back from France after his
as minister there and wore them as
being in strict keeping with his notions
Of democratic simplicity. Naturally they
had some vogue in the United States after
that. But the majority of those who wore
them in both America and England wore
them not as articles Of fashion. but rather
as protests against the arbitraments Of
The noble George changed all that. His
beaus helped him loyalty. Before George
had been on the throne long a duke. in
a pair Of the garments, told his
II 4 Cdn get INTO en- 1 Won nave L
Probably he did not intend to be
too literally. But certainly the
pantaloons had grown to be an object Of
in the kingdom, and bucks Wed
each other to see who could wear the
most beautifully moulded ones.
wellington and
Still the beaus did not conquer easily or
soon. The duke Of Wellington, who in his
dual capacity Of beau and lover Of royalty
had become one OF the first OF the panta-
loon wearers. was turned away from AL
mack's as late as 1914 because he insisted
on appearing in pantaloons.
Another time the lady patronesses Of the
assemblies at Almack's were much exer-
cised. They had planned an elaborate
and ball. and we're determined
hat It should not be desecrated by the
presence of bucks in pantaloons. Yet they
knew full well that the duk Of Wellington
insist on wearing the beloved gar
ments. They could not dare Offend him,
Tor although Wellington had not then be-
ONE the object of popular worship that he
vas later after defeating Napoleon at
Waterloo, yet he was the hero Of Seringa-
and Of the peninsula and q mighty
Ieader Of fashion to boot.
So the Lady Patronesses were in despair;
hey could not and would not yield on the