224 What We Lose 



as much as if it was that of the King and Queen of 

 the Cannibal Islands. All costume off a man is 

 pitiful or grotesque. It is only the serious eye 

 peering from and the sincere life passed within it 

 which restrain laughter and consecrate the costume 

 of any people. Let Harlequin be taken with a fit 

 of the colic, and the trappings will have to serve 

 that mood too. When the soldier is hit by a can- 

 non-ball, rags are as becoming as purple. The 

 childish and savage taste of men and women for 

 new patterns keeps how many shaking and squint- 

 ing through kaleidoscopes that they may discover 

 the particular figure which this generation requires 

 to-day. 



In writing of clothing, I wish, however, to 

 make plain that inexpensive clothes do not 

 imply shabbiness or carelessness in personal 

 appearance, but simply that the blouse of the 

 French workman is better than the dirty linen 

 shirt of the American workman. To be ap- 

 propriately dressed does not, in these days of 

 corduroys and flannel shirts, cost either much 

 money or time, and the man who allows him- 

 self and his children to go dressed as scare- 

 crows misses one element for good in country 



