The Washington herald., 1913-12-07
SOME SLOVENLY MEN
WHO BECAME FAMOUS
Turner Had smallest and Dirtiest
Hands on eeord'-Carlyie
Wore Peasant Garb.

II Is surprising how careless OF their
outer appearance many famous men
have been. 1t is said OF Turner, the great
landscape painter, that his hands were
''the smallest and dirtiest hands on rec
ord" Perhaps that is an exaggeration.
but he was certainly very slovenly in his
dress. He wore a black swallowtail
dress coat, very much in need of a
clothes brush vigorously used, and In
the warmest as well as in the coolest of
weather, he wore round his throat a sort
of wrap or muffier, which he would un-
loose, letting the ends dangle down In
front and dip into the colors OF his
palette. He always worked either with
his old hat on his head or with this same
, large mufier over his head. His appear
ance, declares the Philadelphia Ledger,
was more like that of an old-time coach
man than of a famous Royal Academi-
clan. for he was short and stout, with a
red and blotchy face.
DIR. Johnson's slovenness has almost
passed into a proverb. There are many
contemporary accounts of his turning out
of his house in Bolt court with his wig
hack 10 front and his stockings down.
When Boswell visited him at No. 1 In
ner Temple lane. he records, His brown
suit Of clothes looked very rusty; he had
on a little, old, shriveled. unpowdered
wig. which was too small for his head;
his shirt-neck and the knees Of his
breechess we're loose, his black ,Yorsted
stockings nl-drawn-up, and by way OF
slippers he had on a pair Of unbuckled
shoes" When II Is added that this great
man was constantly twitohing. grunting
shaking his head, putting his cheeks. and
blinking his eyes, IL must be admitted
that his appearance was not only IN
routh. but grotesque.
Thomas Carlyle, coming OF peasant
race, never conformed to society garb
He was always the inspired peasant. He
would sometimes go out in his old dress
! ing gown, over which he buttoned a bis
| coat. gray with age. When he was left
alone in the house he delighted in swill-
| ing his hagstones with pals of water
and many a distinguished friend found
him thus engaged with kind OF snock
on and his bushy hair all tousled- He
/ went about all the summer among the
highest aristocracy in a frieZe Jacket
which was part Of an old dressing gown
All the cabmen and bus drivers Chelsey
way knew him One said: He may wear
a queer at, but what would yer give fol
the 'eadpiece inside Of IT,
| It would not be seemly TO describe Ten
nyson as slovenly in any real sense. He
was a singularly noble-looking man, but
he did not care a jot what he wore. His
] OlQ SLOUGH nat uau bEtl
years and tapped about at all angles
and the Iverness cape which he inva-
riably wore was about as old as his hat
People who met him without knowing his
immense distinction would have regarded
him as a rather quaint character. and q
tailors cutter would not have assessed
him at half a dollar. all told.
This is a description Of the daily ap'
pearance of Edward Fitzgerald. the i'm
mortal author of THE Rubaiyat' ot
Omar Khayyam: Struggling gray hail
and slovenly in dress, wearing an an
cient battered. black-banded shiny
edged tall hat. round which he would ir
winter weather tie a handkerchief Il
keep il in place: his clothes Of baggy
blue cloth, as though he were a seafarer
his trousers short and his shoes low. eN
hIbiting a length of white or gray stock
ings. With an unstarched shirt-front
high. crumpled, stand-up collar. a bis
black silk tie in a careless bow; in COLI
weather trailing a green and black ant
gray plaid shawl, in hot weather ever
walking barefoot with his boots slunt
to a stick" Surely ''Old FitZ," as Tenny
son called him. took the cake for sloyen
illness Of all the immortals!