Evening star., 1902-08-23
MrItten az nc Erenlng SLnr-

Written for The Evening Star
This year is the centenary of the adoption
of the long leg covering known first as pan
falcons and then as trousers
Like the name of the man who designed
the pyramids, the name of the man who de-
signed the first pantaloons is forgotten;
but the monumental achievement of his
brain has impressed itself on the world
from the Car of Russia to the meanest
digger In the meanest ditch in the United
States
AS with many other inventors, he found
It impossible to push his great device, and
perhaps his genius never would have been
appreciated by the world if 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 Brummel's s
Friend George and mighty proud of the
honor, except on occasions when he hap
pened to be peevish. He had achieved the
brilliant invention of a new shoe buckle and
he had been chased over a garden wall by
a husband who did not appreciate 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 1t and the common
man despised it If any impious person had
dared to suggest to any of the my lords of
that day that they exchange their knee
breeches and silken stockings for this hid
eous garment-but nobody dared to suggest
It.
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 oil
dresser. With the exception of the mag
nifcent 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.
Gout a Possible Factor.
Historians who have studied the weighty
subject of his reign add that George and
many of his courtiers We're afflicted sadly
with gout, which is not unreasonable when
one considers some of the quiet and elegant
dinner parties that he loved like the one of
which Thackeray tells when George then
prince regent. his brothers and other equal
ly refined and kindly gentlemen conspfred
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. And George
was royal Simon Tappertit, so far as his
pride in his legs was concerned. There
fore, by becoming the patron of the panta-
loon. George al one blow could satisfy both
his ethical pride as a beau and his manly
vanity 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 revolution: and
It was only great exponent of ROYALTY
a HlF 70, f+z-o II,
Although the pantaloOn had won adherents
throughout France. Ii was palpabIy Worn
less as 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 long-haired democrats of
France were about as unlOveIv objects as
one might imagine. Their pantaloons were
tgnOble bags. shaped in the unima gina tive
form Of sausage castings, hanging on the
limbs like signals of distress and flappfng
dolefully as the wearer walked They were
high waters" ending we'll above the ankle
and showing q waste of stocking-CIa ankle
sympathy with the aims of democracy
induced many young persons of ideals to
garb themselves thus atrOciOusly But the
cruel deeds of the revolution had aroused
such general horror that even If the fash
Ion had been beautiful it probably wouId
have met with enmity as being symbol of
the Red Terror. Being strikingIv COM
pletely and hopeIessly ugly It did not make
any way at all outside OF France worth
mentioning. Jefferson brought the panta-
looms back from France after his terms as
minister there and Wore them as being in
strict keeping with his notions of demo
cratic 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 nro-
tests against the arbitraments of fashion.
The noble George changed all that His
beaus helped him Loyalty. Before George
had been on the throne long duke, in or