LXIII 



CONSTANTINOPLE is now a European city, as well in style 

 as in geography. It is fast losing all its Orientalism. 

 The fez is the only thing left which is universal. A crowd 

 still remains, as of old, "a sea of fezzes." But the origi- 

 nal Constantinople leg-gear has begun to cede to the con- 

 venience of k> pants" always the first and costly step in 

 the downfall of national costumes and customs. Trousers 

 are bad enough ; pants are intolerable. Alas, that the 

 landing-place of our brave old knee -breeched Puritan an- 

 cestors should have been desecrated by a three-dollar pair ! 



In a certain fashion, the trouser is the type of all hu- 

 man growth or backsliding. With the loss of the knee- 

 breeches we lost the stateliness of the olden times ; with 

 the advent of " pants, 1 ' gentlemen have become " gents." 

 Wherever, nowadays, men are careful of their trouser 

 creases, and of the proper length and flow of the garment 

 over the instep, we find the telephone and the electric 

 light and art and letters. Where, as in the Orient, the 

 matter of six inches in the length of either leg of the 

 prevailing trouser is of no material consequence ; where 

 the cut of the leg-clothing is quite disregarded, and a re- 

 spectable or a rich man may appear in public with a ridic- 

 ulous pair of cotton drawers in lieu of the well - brushed 

 and well-fitted broadcloth, we find fanaticism, caste, and 

 retrogression. May not the trouser be considered a meas- 

 ure of human endeavor and success, moral, material, and 

 aesthetic ? I submit this as a debatable point. 



