The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-07-14
Dorothy DiG Says
Man and His Clothes
BY DOROTHY DIX
Worlds Highest Paid Woman Writer

man by his clothes. You turn up
your nose at Brown because he wears
a shabby coat, yet the man has a
soul of gold and is worth a whole
battalion of your tailors dummies"
The woman laughed. WELL" she
replied, Il can only judge man by
| the outward and visible manifesto
| lions of his personality. l can't see
Browns soul, and l can see his coat.
| Moreover, a mans soul may be the
| result of heredity for which he is not
| responsible, but his coat represents
his own individuality and achieve
ments. 1t shows his judgment, his
taste his knowledge of the world, his
mental pose, even his energy and
ability to do this, so it isn't such bad
sign post after all.
This is a deceitful world in which
things are seldom what they SEEM.
| and Pm not fatuous enough to be-
lieve that there are any infallible
rules by which we can size up our
fellow creatures at sight. Even the
science of physiognomy is a broken
reed on which to lean in judging
people,
1.-The smallest mildest looking,
most ladylike man l ever met had
murdered at various times seven diff
ferent people. The shrewdest bust
ness man I know, and the one VINO
| can see fafthest into a milestone, has
a round, placid, fat face, and duh eyes
that look as if he were half asleep
all the time, and is the one individual
in a crowd that you would pick out
for a customer if you were selling gold
| bricks.
LAS for women-good heavens
don't you know soft, baby faced wom-
en-, with innocent eyes that are hard
as rocks and as wicked as JeZebel her
self? And don't you know big com
manding looking women with Roman
noses and square chins who always
ask their husbands if they may go
| down town. and who can't decide on
| a hat without taking six people along
to help them make up their minds
/ No. 1 put no faith in the conforma
ton of anybody's features. but show
me a man or a woman's dress and m
like Culver with his bone. l can con-
| struct the whole animal from that
| fragment"
| POSSIBLY clothes make the wom-
an" agreed the man. They are both
mysteries that 1 can neither button
nor unbutton, but how would you go
about judging a man by his clothes p
| "Well," said the woman, suppose
I was a merchant who had advertised
for an employee clerk, or book
keeper, or a cashier, say. suppose the
first man who applied for the job was
| a good looking young fellow, but ne
was untidy. He was unshaVen and
shorn with a stubbly beard on his
cheeks, and his clothes were rumpled
as if he had slept in them, and spotty
and dirty.
81 wouldn't hire him because his
! clothes would tell me that he was
law, and that he would be the sort of
a man who does his work in slap
| dashy hit or miss way, the easiest
| way, whether it's the right way or
not, and that he would work with his
| eye on the clock and drop his pen in
the middle of a word if five o'clock
| happened to strike. His clothes would
| tell me that he lacked energy and
didn't like to take trouble because if
| he wasn't just naturally shiftless, he
| would shave and brush his clothes and
| press them, and keep himself looking
tidy. No man who thought more of
ease that he did of his personal ap-
pearance would get a job with me.
! Suppose the next man who came
| along looked like a patchwork quilt
| that he had on a red necktie and a
| pink shirt, and a brown coat, and a
| blue waistcoat and gray trousers, and
| his necktie was coming united and
his shoes half laced. 1 wouldn't hire
| him for any position requiring accur-
acy nor quick thinking. 1 should
1 know him to be the sort of man who
never notices things and who never
sees an opportunity until somebody
else comes along and points it out to
him. He'd never catch on to what a
rival was doing-or else he would
| know that up to date men were
| matching their shirts and ties.
! And I'd know that he would make
the kind of a bookkeeper whose ac-
counts never balanced, or a stenog-
rapher who would spell half the
words wrong, or a shipping clerk who
| would bill goods to Mass. when they
should go to Miss, because his clothes
would show that he was inattentive
| to detail. Otherwise, he wouldn't
| have considered that just any sort of
a nIix-up of suits was good enough.
and he would have taken the trouble
to have tied his necktfe properly and
laced his shoes securely. and worn the
coat and vest and trousers that be-
longed together.
Suppose the next man was flashily
dressed in piaids that you could hear
coming a mile off, and a red waist
coat, and wore much cheap jeweiry-
| Suppose his clothes showed that the
money that should have gone in quail
| ity went in gaudiness and that his
feet were clad in cheap patent leath-
ers with no wear iE them instead df
!, good leather. Not for me. l would
| know that he lacked judgment, and
was a tin horn sport, who would be
more interested in prize fights than
he was IN the grocery trade, and that
his thoughts would be occupied with
figuring out the chances of some
White Hope instead of how to raise
himself and become an employers
hope.
Suppose the next man was i'm
maculately dressed. Suppose l de-
tected at a glance that his scarf never
cost a cent under $3.50. that his
clothes were cut by very fashion
able tailor, and his hat was the very
latest expensive block, Suppose, in
short, he looked like millionaire in
stead of a man applying for a twenty
FIVE dollar week job. / wouldn't
hire him because I'd be afraid of what
he would do to the cash register. The
clothes mania can be just as democrat
izing as the drink mania, and | would
MT trust a man too far whose vanity
made him deess above his station.
Suppose the next man who came
in was shabby, but clean. Suppose his
clothes showed hard wear, but they