The New York herald., 1922-12-10
Chauncey M. Depew Follows Crowd.

II have been wearing man-clothes fol
eighty years." said Chauncey NJ. Depew
''and as l am eighty-nine years old that
indicates that at a very early age /
looked like a little old man, a miniature
of my father. for the garments put on me
then were modelled precisely after his
That is why the children shown in the
ancient daguerreotypes of my generation
appear so quaint.
''In all the years since then I have
been dressed like other men: that is.
have exhibited no originality i'm the matter
of clothes and could NOT successfully be
accused of eccentricity; like a million Of
vest or coat but have meekly donnet
whatever the tailor saw fit that I should
wear.
But in these eight decades there have
been many changes and as they affected
my comfort. adding to it or taking from it
as the case was, il was natural that
should observe fashions DEGREES. whether
But let me admit that l have been pretty
meek in these matters.
ITO be comfortable is about all | asked
throughout my life. Yes, 1 preferred tina
to being beautiful. The latter l could no
help. nature being in these, matters al
powerful. but l could put, up remon
STRANGE whenever a tailor sought to trus.
me up uncomfortably in some new tangled
garment
so the clothes I best remember are tn,
clothes that gave me greatest ease. Th'
English tradition of loosely fitting gar
ments has always appealed to me- 1 don
like to be tight under the armholes ever
in a dress suit
II doubt if the latter garment is evel
quite so familiar to a man as his trim
sack or business coat, and perhaps 1 may
be right in declaring that that busines:
garment, with it's easy lines and con
venient pockets. is still my choice. Here
however, custom DEGREES for man of my
advanced years a coat with tails to it.
the sack suit
SO gradual are the changes in the fash
ions for men that Mr.. Depew found some
difficulty in remembering in what sartoria
epoch he was most comfortably dressed
He did remember certain times when IN
was distinctly uncomfortable and by elm
mating these periods the remainder o
his life may be presumed TO have beer
free from clothes annoyance. For he wa.
already so much of an elder when the re
cent tight clothes had a short vogue tina
it left him unscathed
81 never liked the tight trouser epoch,
said he, smiling as he recalled the skin
tight, drab pantaloon of the '70s. and cour
dress. which I have been several time!
forced to adopt, seemed to me most uncom
Portable 1 was presented at court il
Queen Victoria's time and again in Kins
Edwards. and I wore the 'smalls' on nu
merous other occasions of ceremony. bu
Judging from my own feeling I don't be
lieve any ordinary man who thinks less OF
his calves than his head ever liked them
keep those clothes, never could make uI
my mind to give them away, probabl!
for the same reason that exhibits A anC
B are preserved in a court trial as neces
sary evidence that 1 once really wore them
For you see the darned things are 81
hard to get on To have a wrinkle il
ones silk stocking is a social crime anC
to avoid committing it one has to wear
pair of cotton stockings underneath. TheI
to keep the stockings up one has to weal
a contrivance like a womans garter tina
is. the thing is suspended from the waist
Those young men who wear corsets will
their court and evening costume are hap
pier with this kind of garter than us ole
fellows