Clothes and the Man.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 415, 30 October 1889, Page 3

Clothes and the Man.

A writer in the • New York Herald ' says : — To dress well may not be the chiof end of man, bub the character of his attire certainly has a great influence on his fate in life. I never could understand why Anyone should despi&e dress. That certainly is an affectation. If lam wrong in that statement, then surely the unclad savage ie right. Were I to limit my personal adornment to a breech clout I should be escorted either to a police station or to a madhouse. Well, then, doesn't it stand to reason that i£ dress is good, to dress well is better, and to dress properly ia best? Men may say what they please, and laugh at what they please, and sneer at what they please in this matter, but the man who does not, aim at perfection in dress according to his understanding of it is the rare exception and not the rule. Of course a man's views in this particular vary according to his position in life and the education of his surroundings. I do not imagine that I am better qualified than another to declare what constitutes perfection in dress, but I think that among gentlemen there will be no dissent from the proposition* that the best attired man is he who dresses with quiet elegance, and whose apparel does not instantly catch the eye by some glaring detail. Bight here I wish to say a few words upon a subject which I don't clearly understand, and that it what is meant by the much-used word 'dude.' I don't know how it arose, and it is used so variously that I am at an utter lus'i to comprehend ite meaning. So far as my observation goes, it appears to me to be moat generally applied to very young men who wear very small bats and very large and very loud clothing, and who are never without canes, as thick as themselves. This class of youths are, without exception, the worst-dressed persons.