The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1914-06-06

nous dandy and arbiter of fashion l whose butterfly existence began in London on June 2, 1778. George Bryan Brummel, the son of a ma 1 jor dome, a nephew of candy
 .xer," and the spiritual father of the | present-day shob,' was chiefly re-
 narkab1e for the poor and ignoble uses to which he put his undoubted | talents, but he has one distinction
 which should commend him to twen-
 tieth century masculinity, for he was the first person of any prominence to
 wear trousers. This year marks the
 trousers among Englishlnen, or, ratn7
 CT, the introduction. of Englishmen's 1 legs into trousers. 1t was in 1St4 that Beau Brummel, then in his sar- 1 toriaI glory, startled London society
 by wearing the -fang1ed breech- es which encased the leg to the foot, instead of stopping at the knee The trousers worn by the Beau fitted as snugly as modern tights" and but 1 toned around the ankle. Such was the influence of the Beau that in d few years trousers were generally adopted by the English gentry and nobility, and at a little later period were taken up by the commoners of both England and America. All Europe soon adopted trousers as a i highly important part of masculine
 garb, and knee brooches went out of style, except for diplomats and cour-
 tiers at formal court functions, and
 for sporting wear. The Englishman continues to wear s'knic kers" when he rides to hounds or goes shooting.
 While trousers were populariZed by
 Beau Brummel, they were doubtless invented and first worn by some tail or, unknown, dnhonored and unsung
 whose name has been lost in a cen- tury-oId antiuquity Numerous tailors
 claimed to be the inventor of the modern neither garment for men, but
 conclusive proof of the identity of
 this benefactor of mankind is lack
 ing. It is highly probable, however, that the pioneer was an Irishman.
 and it is certain that the English word trousers" was first used to des- ignate thep< leg-coverings of the an- cient Irish, : "trews. which bore z faint resemblance to the trousers of to-day.
 For many years after trousers came into general use there was no gen. eral agreement on a name for them.
 While some referred to them as trou sers, others called them long
 breeches,' and s;pantaloons'' had .. large following. The ''pantaloon' proper, However, was a garment,
 reaching to the ankles, which was ex- clusivelys feminine. Pantaloons were usually worn under a skirt, but among the working women of England and
 Ireland, in the early part of the
 nineteenth century. pantaloons were sometimes worn without skirts, as providing greater freedom of move nent. Mrs Ann Boomer, who in troduced in 1S49 a feminine costume consisting of an open-fronted Jacket and loose trousers, built wide. like those of the Turk and gathered in at the ankles, was thus not .tFie innova- tor she seemed. Suffnagists who point to valuable precedent. and prove that pantaloons, if net invent ed by the fair sex, were at least first worn by them.
 While trousers, pantaIoons, and s1ong-breeches warred for su
 premacy, as the proper designation of
 the new masculine garment, Ameri-
 cans, with their passion for brevtty
 and tine-saving, introduced new word, sspants,'' abbreviation of sspantaloons'' This word has al ways been considered low and vulgar
 and on a par with gent as an ab- breviation of "gentIemen," but 1t en-
 joys a. wide vogue in the United
 States, and to a lesser extent, in Cam ada England and the colonies. Sew eral fine distinctions have been made between 'ttrousers' and pants" all though in shape and form there Is little to distinguish between them. It
 has been said that gentlemen wea@ trousers and gents wear pants, but this distinction is hardly fair. The newspaper advertisements afford 8
 better basis, for differentiation, and
 from these one gathers that low priced neither garments, including
 practically all of the ready-to-Wear varieties are pants while the high er-priced and tailor made article con-. stitutes s'trousers." The modern
 knee length brooches have become
 'slxniclzerbockers," or 'knickers'' or
 even "knicks" for short, on this side of the Atlantic.
 In setting forth the vocabulary of neither garments one must not forget the "panties'' of tender youth-as word that is indignantly cast aside in favor of the more manly pants as
 soon as the wearer has reached the age of discretion. There are also to be considered the 'toveralIs,' usually pronounced "overhalls'' even by Ann ericans who are not given to the in
 terpolation of superhuous "aitches.' Overalls, however, are the badges of
 useful labor, and as such Beau Brum-
 mel and his modern prototypes would doubtless deny that they bear any re-
 lactionship to the more elegant trous- CTS.
 Within a century trousers have made the circuit of the globe, and they are now generally worn by the
 men of every continent. Even the l king of the CannibaI Isles, who but
 recently consi dered himself well
 dressed. when he wore a smile and a l string of beads, now bedecks himself
 on state occasions in trousers and at 1 silk hat-the latter article of adorn-
 nnent, Incidentally, having come into l use at about the same time as trOuS- l CTS. Despite their greet triumph,
 however, trousers are still frowned
 upon as not quite correct for the ev-
 ening dress of a gentleman at many
 of the courts of Europe, and in l number of countries jurists still cling
 to knee brooches as steadfastly as te- 1 their wigs and ernine. The kilt, the
 brief petticoat of the Highlander and
 the ancient Irish, also have their present day yotaries, and,' from the 1vfewpoint. of the physiologist, kits are
 superior to trousers.
 Within the century of their exist erce trousers have undergone many