216 What We Lose 



the office, but the tie survives, and the man 

 who goes without a necktie is held up to scorn. 

 A score of such customs which have now no 

 other warrant than that "every one else does 

 so " might be given. Yet it is more difficult to 

 teach a boy the necessity of truth than the 

 folly of too much attention to his clothes. As 

 things go there is a reason in the present insist- 

 ence upon fine feathers; the man who wishes 

 to be well paid must make people believe that 

 he is worth large pay and that other people 

 think so. If he is richly dressed, it is a sign 

 that his services have been considered worthy 

 of a rich reward. "It pays to dress well," has 

 become a maxim with us, and there is reason 

 behind it. It does pay in money. But we 

 must take care that we do not pay too much 

 for that money. 



The matter of clothes has been suggested as 

 offering possible obstacles to a life without 

 money, and the topic has been treated so fully, 

 and so much better by Thoreau than I can 

 hope to treat it, that I will venture to quote at 

 length from his Walden. It is begging the 

 question to assume that because one may at- 



