262 OLD WEST SURREY 



by his distinctive dress. How little of this remains ; even the 

 red caps of the brewers' vanmen are now but rarely seen. 



The smith's leather apron remains, and always must, 

 as it is a need of his work. My friend in the picture 

 wears his shorter than usual ; it might have a higher bib. 

 But I can remember a regular carpenter's dress ; a short 

 jacket of thick white baize or felt, an apron and a neat 

 paper cap. 



Now, alas ! all workpeople, except those who do the 

 hardest outdoor labour, such as navvies, stone-pitmen, and 

 farm-labourers, are clothed in a dead-level of shabbiness. 

 The shops are full of cheap suits with a pretence of fashion, 

 which are bought for Sunday wear. They are soon past 

 their best, and are then taken into working use, for which 

 they are entirely unfit. The result is that it is only the 

 farm-labourer and his hard-working kind, who must wear 

 the right or suitable kind of clothes, who look well dressed. 

 For real working clothes, like all other thing's that are right 

 and fit for their purpose, never look shabby. They may be 

 soil-stained ; they may be well-worn, but they never have 

 that sordid, shameful, degraded appearance of the shoddy 

 modern Sunday suit put to an inappropriate use. 



I am not using these words in a spirit of blame, but 

 in one of regret. Working people are tempted by the shops, 

 that present their wares in a convenient and superficially 

 attractive way. I am not even blaming the shopkeepers ; 

 they are driven to this way of doing business by the pressure 

 of trade competition. The shops display the attractive thing 

 at a cheap price ; the salesman's duty to his employer is to 

 push it. 



