The Grangeville globe. [volume] (Grangeville, Idaho) 1907-1922, 1914-01-29
FAMOUS SLOvENS
They Had a Fine Contempt For
Personal Appearance.
GENIUS IN UNCOUTH ATTIRE.
Turner, the Artist, Dressed Like an
Old Time Cab Drivsr-Dr. John son
Was orotssque, and ''OId Fitz" Out.
raced All the Sartorial Conventions.


Was orotssque, and ''Old Fitz" Out
Il RACED All the SartoriaI Conventions.
Il Is surprising how outrageously
careless of their personal appearance
many famous men have been. Genius
may or may not be allied to madness.
but it has certainly very often been
linked with an utter disregard for
clothes and Clearly habits.
1t is said of. Turner. the great land
scape painter, that his hands were the
smallest and dirtiest hands on record"
Perhaps that Is an exaggeration, but
be was certainly very slovenly in his
dress. He wore a black swallowtail
dress coat, very much In need Of
clothesbrush vigorously used and In
the warmest as well as In the coolest
weather he wore round his throat a
sort of wrap or muffier. which be
would unloose, 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 muffier over his
head His appearance was more like
that Of an old time coachman than of
famous Royal Academician. for he
was short and stout. with red and
blotchy face.
DR.. Johnson's slovenliness has al
most passed into proverb. There are
many contemporary accounts of his
turning out of his house In Bolt court
with his wig back to front and his
stockings down. When Boswell visited
him at Inner Temple lane he records.
Ellis brown suit of clothes looked very
rusty; he had on little, old shriveled
unpowdered wig, which was too small
for his head; his shirt neck and the
knees of his breeches were loose. his
black worsted stockings Ill drawn up,
and by way of slippers he had on a
pair Of unbuckled shoes" When it il
added that this great man was con.
stantly twitching, granting, shaking
his head, putting his cheeks and blink
ing his eyes. 1t must be admitted that
his appearance was not only uncouth
but groteJque.
Thomas Carlyle, coming of a peasant
race, never conformed to society garb
He was always the inspired peasant
He would sometimes go out In bis
old dressing gown. over which he bnt
toned big coat, gray with age When
he was left alone in the house he dc
lighted in swilllng his hagstones with
pals of water and many diSth
gutshed friend found him thus EN-
gagged with a kind of smock on Htiu
his bushy hair all tousled He went
about all the summer among the nigh
est aristocracy in a frieze jacket which
was part Of an old dressing gown All
the cabmen and bus drivers Chelsea
way knew him One said. He may
wear queer at. but what would yer
give for the 'eadpiece inside of it,
1t would not be seemly to describe
Tennyson as slovenly in any real
sense, He was singuarly noble
looking man, but he did not care jot
what he wore. His old SLOUGH hat had
seen unnumbered years and tapped
about at all angles, and the Inverness
cape which he invariably wore was
about as old as his hat People who
met him without knowing his immense
distinction would have regarded him
as rather quaint character. and a
tailors cutter would not have assessed
him at half dollar, all told
This is description of the daily ap-
pearance of Edward Fitzgerald, the
immortal translator of "The Rubaiyat'
OF Omar Khayyam: struggling gray
hair and slovenly in dress, wearing an
ancient. battered. black banded. shiny
edged tall hat. round which he would
In wintry weather tie handkerchief
to keep 1t in place; his clothes OF
baggy blue cloth. as though he were a
seafarer: his trousers short and his
shoes low. exhibiting a length OF white
or gray stockings. With an unstarch
ed shirt front. high, crumpled. standup
collar, big black silk tie in a careless
DOW; In cold weather trailing a green
and black and gray plaid shawl. In hot
weather even walking barefoot with
MS boots slung to stick" Surely
"oid Fitz." as Tennyson called him.
TOOK the cake for slovenliness of all
the immortals Pearson's Weekly.