Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1915-08-10
GAY COLORS BANNED
UNIFORMS OF SOLDIERS ARE NO
LONGER CONSPICUOUS.
Elaborate Costumes That Were Worn
by Combatanto of the Last Two
Centuries Are No Longer Seen
on the Battlefield.

The soldiers dress has been simpli-
fed to bare necessities. 1t 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 Worcestershire-on 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 ribband
and not more than eight inches in di-
| 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
| 50 DIS uOI 10 UlO@ dDOul- QUEUES were
worn until 1905
The soldiers hat has been the sub
| ject of continual experiment and
| change, from the picturesque hat of
| 1856, 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 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 a large round peak. The
! officers hat of 1898 was a 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, a large
| brass pate in front and 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 SUI
perseded by the khaki cap, which, all
things considered, is about the best
headgear yet devised.-London Globe.