Dresden enterprise and Sharon tribune. (Dresden, Tenn.) 1907-1997, 1915-08-20
MY COLORS BANNED
UNIFORMS OF SOLDIERS ARE NO
LONGER CONSPICUOUS.
Elaborate Costumes That Were Worn
by Combatants Of the Last Two
Centuries Are No Longer Seen
on the Battlefield.

The soldiers dress has been simpli
fed to bare necessities. It was other.
wise In the old times. The military
regulations Of the eighteenth and the
greater part of the nineteenth centu.
ries furnish one long record of altera-
tons of costume, Of solemn injunc-
lions as to laces, loops, frogs, buttons,
facings, epaulets, WINGS" and what
not.
The dressing Of the soldiers hair
was special object Of concern. I'm
til the end Of the eighteenth century
the hair was an elaborate arrange
ment of grease and powder. Three
shillings per man was the allowance
in 1894 for these two toilet adjuncts,
and the cost to the country four shil-
lings four pence for pipe-clay and
whiting with which to Turkish up his
white breeches and leather appur-
tenances. To make up for this out
lay he was expected to make shift
with the renewal of only half Of his
waistcoat-the fore part-the hind
part having to be made out of that
of the preceding year! So ran the
regulations of 1888.
In 1895 powder was discontinued by
the non-coms and the rank and file,
but it was still the regulation for
officers. When the Twenty-ninth-now
the Observation-Disclosures of the trim
NEST regiments in the army, was sta
toned at Weymouth in 1897 an order
was issued directing that the hair was
to be dressed with one curl on each
side; the toupee turned and not too
long; the club to be tied high and to
be more broad at the top than at the
bottom; the rosette to be all rbband
and not more than eight inches in d.
ameter, the ribband and rosette to be
perfectly black and put on after pow.
dering."
The Grenadiers and light infantry
officers were to have their hair dressed
"the same as the men, excepting their
side locks, which may come down so.
as to cover the open part Of the ear,
but never lower, and must be frizzed
so as not to blow about" Queues were
worn until 1903.
The soldiers hat has been the sub
ject of continual experiment and
change, from the picturesque hat Of
1886, with its broad brim turned up
on one side and ornamented with
white ribbon, to the mean looking
Broderick cap. In 1851 the three
cornered cooked hat was in favor;
then came the imposing inter cap,
converting the wearer into a sort
of miniature pope; and this was fol-
lowed by a bearskin of a similar
shape. In 177S light infantry wore
leather caps almost as small as skull
caps, with large round peak. The
officers hat of 1893 was most elabo-
rate and expensive affair, ornamented
with the finest black ostrich feathers,
with a standup feather Of red and
black.
The shake, the most hideous hat
ever Contrived, commenced its long
reign in 1900, when it supplanted the
cooked hat. Originally it was OF
lacquered felt, with a peak. large
brass plate in front and a red and
black tuft on the crown rising from a
small black cockade; and after many
variations it disappeared in 1878,
when the cork helmet became the
regulation hat, in its turn to be su'
perseded by the khaki cap, which, all
things considered, is about the best
headgear yet devised-London Globe.