Democratic Sentinel, Volume 8, Number 44, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 November 1884 — The Democracy of Fashion. [ARTICLE]

The Democracy of Fashion.

The development of social conversation under republican institutions is to be expected. One man is as good as another, and i's lie thinks himself better he must be careful not to betray his consciousness of superiority lest he bo set down as a conceited and therefore highly objectionable person. Once out of the beaten path, the citizen is likely to be made the butt of ridicule or a target for the stinging shafts of censure. Superior mental endowments may palliate social eccentricities, but (lie lingering feeling remains in the public mind that a man of brains would be more valuable to his comm nity if he would yield somewhat toits penchant i'or running things on a dead level. Wayward geniuses, although petted and indulged, are not held up as examples tor imitation. The sense of equality is almost a faculty iu republican life, outstripping b th eye and ear in detecting that which is inconsonant with public tas' o. Iu his mother’s arms, at school among his playmates, jostling on the street from crowd to crowd, and throughout the eager competitions of all liis career, the young man is taught the lesson of conformity to establish order. Every change, whether a national statute or a cut of the coat, must be tested, carefully considered and general v commended before meeting with public favor, and novel opinions ami novel garments are alike relegated to a probationary ground of half suspicion. Before the war of the rebellion a mustache was the mark of a dark conspirator or a foolish fop, and a billycock or Alpine hat laid its owner open to tire suspicion of being a professional swindler. We have progressed greatly in this respect sinee that time, but the American idea in the matter of maeouM»a attire does not yet appear to be sufficiently expansive. In Europe, where society is more diversified and culture of an older and more established growtli, the young man of the period is atlewed free swing in selecting his wardrobe. As tire center of fashion drifts from place to place the modifications of cet4, hat and trouse*s are accepted without question or remark. The Prince of Wales has for a long tkne been the arbiter olegautarinm of masculine fashions, and to the London tailors the young man must look out foi latest styles and novelties of cut. Loudon garments, however, have never made much headway in this eountry.— Philadelphia Record.