220 What We Lose 



coats and breeches. Dress a scarecrow in your 

 last shift, you standing shiftless by, who would not 

 sooner salute the scarecrow? Passing a cornfield 

 the other day close by a hat and coat on a stake, I 

 recognized the owner of the farm. He was only a 

 little more weather-beaten than when I saw him 

 last. I have heard of a dog that barked at every 

 stranger who approached his master's premises with 

 clothes on, but was easily quieted by a naked thief. 

 It is an interesting question how far men would re- 

 tain their relative rank if they were divested of 

 their clothes. Could you in such a case tell surely 

 of any company of civilized men which belonged to 

 the most respected class? When Madame Pfeiffer, 

 in her adventurous travels round the world from 

 east to west, had got so near home as Asiatic 

 Russia she says she felt the necessity of wearing 

 other than a travelling dress when she went to 

 meet the authorities, for she " was now in a civil- 

 ized county where people are judged of by their 

 clothes! " Even in our democratic New England 

 towns the accidental possession of wealth and its 

 manifestation in dress and equipage alone obtain for 

 the possessor almost universal respect. But they who 

 yield such respect, numerous as they are, are so far 

 heathen, and need to have a missionary sent to them. 



