TIGHT STAYS, AND CRAVATS. 177 



Civilised man has certainly an undoubted 

 right to put on clothes of any colour, or of any 

 size and shape ; but then, the rest of the com- 

 munity ought not to be pointed at, nor turned 

 into ridicule, if their own notions of raiment 

 dissuade them from imitating his example. 

 But how little is this liberality either practised 

 or understood by man reclaimed from the 

 forests ! Some royal spendthrift, supported by 

 the public purse, some brainless son of for- 

 tune just entered into the possession of enor- 

 mous wealth, sets the fashion ; and then all 

 must adopt it, be their aversion to it ever so 

 extreme. Fashion may be tolerable in some 

 degree when it merely trims the purse, but 

 it is utterly intolerable when it affects the 

 person. 



He was a cunning and a clever shoemaker 

 who first succeeded in turning old Grandfather 

 Square toes into ridicule, and in setting up 

 young Sharpfoot as a pattern for universal 

 imitation. What must have been poor old 

 Dame Nature's surprise and vexation when 

 she saw and felt the abominable change ? The 

 toes have their duty to perform, when the 

 frame of man is either placed erect, or put in 



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