Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-07-11
HET.UP CLERKS COATLESS
Not So Formal at District Building
as in Days Past. /.
SOME COSTUMES ARE POEM
Glen Echo Pants Harmonic With
Shirts of Delicate Hue-Rtval-
~ Is Fierce.

Commissioner Rudolph appeared at the
District building this morning In law
ender negige shirt. this being the nrst
time he has worn a colored shirt since
taking the oath Of ONCE. Immediately
upon taking off his coat his secretary.
Waldo Hibbs, rushed into the room with
an armful of lavender-colored stationery
Everything must be harmonious. the
Commissioner said to those who COM
nented on the soothing effect that the
lavender stationery and linen had on the
eye.
Now this little bit of sidelight on the
Commissioner efforts to have everything
done tremendously and In order would
not have been possible had the old rule
been in effect that no coats must De
shucked in the District building. In past
resfmes a coatless clerk in the District
building would have been spoken to Sc
verely, according to Mr.. Hibbs. Shortly
after the recent hot spell started q hush-
ed faced newspaper man burst into COM
missioner Rudolph's anteroom and rushed
on Mr. Hibbs ith a question.
Secretary Hibbs Shocked.
Your coat. Where's your coat?" the
secretary gasped.
Goat! Why. man. it's 10 in the
shade
That's all right but the Commission
ers expect every man to wear coat.
Just at that moment Commissioner
Rudolph passed his private door he was
arrayed like the true American citizen,
coatiess and cuffless. and the coat.
wearing precedent of years new out or
the window, while hope for the perspir-
ing clerks rushed in at the door.
Since then the coats have been coming
Off and the colored shirts. discouraged
by a decade Of suppression. have been
peeping forth here and there like Sladi-
olus bulbs on a grassy lawn. Commits
sioner Johnston, II is rumored, sticks to
the coat-a thin one, OF course-but the
lack of color in that respect Is MADE up
amply. doubly and magnincently by
sioner. who wears Glen Echo pants OF
thin white serge, turned up at the bot
tom. and contrasting nicely with the
colored shirt tucked into them
Looks Like Ice Cream Gone.
With this ice cream get-up. Mr.. Pratt
often appears at a distance to be a
huge cone Of vanilla and strawberry.
But MIR. Pratt has nothing on Commits
sioner Judson. who imports a tropic suit
of something like seersucker into the Dis
trict building on a hot day. When the
thermometer registers 10 the major has
a suit that weighs about three ounces.
He goes in for colored shirts, too, and has
them cut full in the back. so that they
flap gloriously when he gets In 'front.' OF
an electric fan.
DR.. Tindall is wearing white semi
starched pleats this season. He has
turned up his trousers at the bottom, too.
Assistant Secretary Myers affects white
suits OF linen, smokes cigarette every
now and again and looks just like CHAR
acter from q book about the Philippines.
Daniel E. Garges, chief clerk of the en-
gineer department., has handled so many
blue prints that he has a natural leaning
toward blue, and in spite OF the undertone
Of brown in his eyes and hair ana COM
plexion he blows In from Washington
Grove in a spinnaker-cut mainsail shirt
of beautiful blue, takes of his coat and
spoils two collars before lunch time.
Nye Has 743 Shirts.
ASA e. Phillips, the engineer. who is
constantly doing big stunts with the net
work OF sewers, sticks to a conservative
style of shirt, and has never been seen
with a bow tie. But the place to see
the effect Of tedious study and constant
application to the latest hints from Paris
is down In the Offices Of the assessor and
the collector OF taxes. Frank Nye led OH
this year with white shoes, and has been
wearing them since some time in April.
He has TAB shirts, not one duplicate
count 'em. Every one has the stripes
running the same way, and there Is not
a vulgar polka dot among them. BenJa-
min Adams. assistant assessor. who is
said to be the originator of the neat-but-
not-gaudy style Of wearing summer
shirts. has gone in for poetic simplicity.
and has laid in stock OF white shirts
that are simple in appearance. but so
fresh and cool and distinguished looking
as to strike envy deep into the hearts
of those who racked their brains to find
a new effect in rainbow shtrtings.
King Of the shirtists.
But probably the king shirtist is
Charles c. Rogers. the president OF the
District Building Swell Dressers' Associa-
ton He was made president recently
because he was the only man who could
prove that he had never worn a detached
cuff in all his life. On q platform OF
attached cuffs nothing" he made
his fight and won against Assessor Rich
ards, who fought his fight on diametri-
cally opposed principles. he believing In
the unitarian rather than the butterfly
,,,oNa Of armareling ones self