Forest City press. (Forest City, Potter County, D.T. [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1911-12-28
MANY OF THREATENED
FADS HAVE FAILED
Perhaps That Is What Will
Happen to Proposed Knee
Brooches for Men.

From the Philadelphia North American
Out in Los Angeles the other day q
brave person. by name Louis BorQue;
occupation. gentleman Of leisure; ma
tionality. French: expert in matters
sartorial and a few other things. gave
to h world the opinion that mankind
of the future was destined to knea
breeches and silk hose.
Maybe he was right. Modern pre-
cedent. though: is against him..
There is really no reason. of course.
why mankind should forever bedeck
itself in garments of the a la mode
architecture. But there is every reason
dress. Is becoming more conservative.
n that any changes will be matters
Of evolution n not the result OF hasty.
ill-considered mandates. without re-
course to the due process Of fashions
laws.
All h tendencies of mems fashions
in the last few years have been to-
ward simplicity. Many modes that
tended toward the extreme nave beer,
introduced, but they didn't take. Fads,
for the present. arc out OF fashion.
s"How much better 1t would be to see
a man wearing a fine silk shirt, pretti-
~ trimmed in old lace, and the silk
nose and shoes with buckles would be-
much more pleasant than. our loosely
tied and slovenly appearing string
shoes. or bottom shoes with half the
buttons off. 1t is certain that clothing
changes radically every century. botn
TOR men and women. and we nave had
a century of mems clothing in the pres
ent styles"
"Oh, you century!'' A hundred years
OF ugly styles. the only merit of which
Is their copcealment. not only of the
beauties but. far more important. Of
the deficiencies of the men of fash
ion!
Much better indeed would be the
mode of the colonial period than that
of the ugly and prosaic present for
those few men who live the active and
healthy lives of IL honored ancestors.
n trim calves that went SO we'll with
the sknickers,' the small clothes, the
frilled fronts. the lace stocks of bygone
days. are not always to be found
among the males of our own age.
Flats. town houses and apartment ho-
tells are not conducive to shapely limbs
Of today is more inclined to %corpulency
than to picturesqueness. Often he is
all right in clothes cut to hide the evil
dences OF refined civilization But ar
ray him in the close-cut garments of
fine material that graced the martisri
figures of the colonial men and he
would surely be q fright.
II mly be that fashion will have her
way, and that the men who still ride
horses and do other outdoor stunts
that tend to keep their figures within
pounds will swing the pendulum clear
back to the knee breaches and the frilled
fronts. But so far there is no evidence
OF any such reaction. On the other
hand. all tendencies toward the pic.
turesque have been sternly repressed.
For instance. there was the Kaisey
Wilhelm hunting hat. Introduced just
about the time that the ultra dressers
had ken to green headgcar, its dash.
Ing ckade threatened to break into
ing of the sort happened. A few mer
whose social status was in no danger
were equal to appearing in public in
1t. but they got themselves into the
newspapers with such eclat that they
speedily took to less radical headgear
The green hats themselves. though
they We're not extremely radical. were
too much on the "rah-rah'' order To
achieve lasting popularity. For ono
season they had a brief career OF
pseudo-pcpularity. Then they went into
q decline. Many a brave man who
had coyly ventured on the public thor
oughfares in his Alpine toppiece wa.
glad enough to let it follow his othe,
follics.
Coming down a bit, there were Tho
stocks. They seemed sensible. ana
those gentlemen with hort and tender
necks. who for untold years have beer
grooming against the tyranny of stiff
collars. appeared to have their innings
There. at least. was one breakaway III
the direction backward toward the lace
stocks and frllled fronts of the coloni.
ais. But 1t was too good to be true
The vaudeville persons. the brasil
Broadway boys who are always in tho
forefront of the advance styles
grabbed to the stocks with enthusiasm
After that no n else wanted them
except the horseback fraternity. who
have never quit using them since the
old hunting days.
AS to ties, the tendency has been al
toward simplicity rather than the giddy
lace things Of our ancestors Thos.
knitted and crcchetcd strings that arc
good till they are all frayed out, that
are easy to handle and look neat and
trim, have been supplanting all tho
more ornate styles, and appear to have
the call for some time to come.
Again, the gsiddy waist coats had
their lay. For a short space man bios
somed. out as a bird of paradise, a gold
en- brea sted pheasant. a robin red
breast and a few other proud and
naughty males of the bird families. But
there came a chilling frost. ard when
the birds Went south the gaudy waist
coats fell from grace.
Even the evening clothes caught III.
FEVER, and there were some veritablt
CONNECTIONS worn with dinner coats a,,,
occasionally with swallow-tails. Nos,
of these have gone by the beard. The
latest DEGREES OF the tailors are that
It's we'll to leave out the pink scot.
and other evidences Of color. with fun
dress coats, unless one wishes to b4
considered radical.
Soft bosom shirts. or those with
pleats and the like. with dinner jack
cts. and figured or finely pleated things
with full dress, have likewise gore in
to the radical class. NOthinD hut 49,.