The Savannah morning news., 1903-10-18
KNOW We THE CLOTH BY IT'S CIT

'H AhE CAOTH BY IT'S CUT.
Vanity of vanities, all is vanity"
Even among those ecclesiastics who are
wont TO generously quote from Ecclesi
astes' thus inveighing against wordli-
ness there creeps in, in a guise that.
to them, renders it irrecognizable
somewhat of that very vanity against
which their voices are lifted. Thus
saith the Greenbrier Presbytery, one of
the largest and most important of West
Virginia:
Resolved That it is the solemn and
painful conviction of this Greenbrier
Fresbytery that some of the ministerial
brethren are departing from the time
nonored custom of the fathers in wear
ing Dobtailed coats, and the presbytery
would hereby warn the brethren
against conformity to this custom of
the dudes. Let the offending brethren
be warned of what the uncircumcised
may do to them, as recorded in First
chronicles, XIV, lis. We respectfully
point them to the vestures of the faith
ers and brethren of the presbytery
Revs. M. H. Bittinger w. T. Price and
M. Il. Lacy, as having coats becoming
IN length, in opposition to conformity
to the fashions of the present day."
Religious bodies are quite often
moved to the mirthful consideration of
some suggestion, pregnant of humor
that may be suggested in all seriousness
by some member in whom all sense of
the ridiculous is is dead as great Hec-
tor. May not some staid and reverend
minister of the Greenbrier Presbytery
have solemnly acclaimed against coats
of economical cut, only to have his con-
Of 4
the proper ministerial taste in apparel
meet with serio- comic consideration by
his associates? There runs a vein of
humor through the presbytery's reso-
luton; is it accidental?
Why, in all seriousness, should
minister be hampered in his individual
tastes and preferences in matters of
dress? We admit. nay insist, that gen.
tlemen of the cloth should not array
themselves in garments of a flash and
radiance at which a fancy makeup
! man OF comic opera might marvel, but
somewhat of the latitude that is per-
mitted sober, modest gentleman of
other walks in life should be accorded
minister He would not overstep the
bounds. He would not desire to do so.
If he had any such desire he would not
be minister. He would have given
rein to his propensities, and no prom
Using sporting material would have been
| fashioned into a poor pulpit ornament.
If the tailor does not make the man.
why should he make the preacher? A
long coat, hkleous in it's cut, grotesque
in its fit, does not make the preacher
any more than a short coat, well-fitting
and well-cut, though perchance with
brevity, mars him. No vanity moves
the preacher who wears a short coat
and seeks only to render himself, as to
outward appearances, only as other
men. Rather does the vanity lie. if
vanity there is, upon the side of those
who cry out against an affectation in
dress that does not exist in the objects
of their denunciation, and is to be
found only in that adherence to a re-
ligious fogyism that is really exhibited
in their own raiment.
Cupidity and envy moved the breth-
rem of Joseph to strip him Of his coat
of many colors. No such sentiments in
spire the brethren of Greenbrier to rise
up in wrath against those of curtailed
coats. They like not the cut of garments
of too great brevity, and yet there is a
question of color also. They urge that
the short coats are not blue" that
being the hue that is popularity asso-
ciated with the solemn presbyters.
"Cut my coat after my CLOTH" the
brethren of Greenbrier direct. They
want no world-abreast styles in their
garments. Content they are with the
cut that their fathers affected. No
fonder sartorial epitaph do they want
than
Old Grimes Is dead, that good old man,
We never shall see more:
He used to wear a long black coat
All buttoned down before.
BY the time those mixed up in that