Evening star., 1903-08-03
SUMMER CLOTHES.
Dress Reform That Was Promised Has
Failed.

From the New York Times.
The dress reform promised for season
or two by the bicycle and golf seems
finally to have failed. There was at one
time good hope that the trouser, the most
ungainly and irrational and ridiculous
article Of apparel ever devised. was about
to go The nineteenth century saw the
Introduction OF 1t. We do not recall any
instance in portraiture Of its appearance
before the year 1900. Washington and his
contemporaries, like the Captain bold of
Halifax" wore ''regimental small clothes, -
decent and cleanly garment, which did
not draggle and accumulate mud, and
which. combined with boots for rough rid
Ing, or with pumps for occasions Of eere-
mony. left nothing to be desired. Thomas
Jefferson. we believe. wore trousers and
was one of the pioneers of that hateful
practice. The trouser somehow came to be
regarded as a symbol of democracy in the
early days. possibly because it reduced all
human legs. shapely or unshapely, to the
same level of ungainliness. The contem-
porary populist. as he looks on great old
Bryan. sloping slowly to the west. cannot
imagine w. J. in golf stockings and
breeches. And yet Mr.. Bryan has pre-
sentable legs. and would cut a far more
dignihed figure In garments that should
reveal their comeliness. But evidently 1t
would be his political ruin to wear so sensi-
BILE q thing.
The abolition of the trouser Is the -. .
desideratum for a rational SUNNI,
tune for men. 1t seems that tDlt desiIdDio
consummation is indefinitely postponed.
The men Of 1896 and 1897 who boldly wore
breeches and bicycle stockings to their
places Of business would not this year
venture to be seen in them. except when
actually astride of a wheel. II even then.
But the next desideratum. the soft shirt" I"
Is gaining In favor. the philanthropist may
rejoice to note. Starch is the chief enemy
h,,v,, fnrt In t1,or IN
man can be comfortable inclosed in a stiff
decentralization of starched linen. The
soft flannel shirt. once known as "Crt-
mean." Is an ideal summer envelope. which.
however requires some courage to wear.
AS Lowell said 1t takes a hero to walk
down Piccadlly in a slouch hat at the
height Of the London season. But the
haberdashers now exhibit CONNECTIONS OF
unstarched cotton which reconcile comfort
with convention, and in which the most
timorous OF mortals need not fear to be
seen.
Nobody whose festival occasions take him
about New York can have failed to re-
mark, with a touch of envy, that the most
nationally dressed human brothers he en-
counters are the Cinnamon. And what the
Chinaman wears are simply the "pajamas' -
in which no Caucasian would dare to be
seen outside Of his own bed room. 1t is true
that the Chinaman so far truckles to GUS
tom as to adopt the troEser. or the drawer,
to the despair of Sculptors, insomuch that
we have not heard of any yearning on the
part of any sculptor to model any laundry
man. But. race prejudice being laid aside,
what an admirable summer costume 1t is
that the mongOl sports. loose, easy flow
ing, entirely decent. and with not trace
anywhere Of the starch which IS the chief
ingredient of his trade. He sinks the shop
In his private habiliments. When we have
the courage to initiate the mOngol in his
summer dress We shall be far more COM
Portable and far moro intrinsically respect
able than we are now.