The Relation of Clothing to Living 



Br ROSA E. PAYNE 



WHEN Shakespeare made Polonius 

 (the Danish nobleman giving his 

 parting advice to his son) say, 

 regarding dress, 



"Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy. 

 But not expressed in fancy: 

 Rich, not gaudy: 



For the apparel oft proclaims the man," 

 he tersely expressed the important relation 

 that clothing bears to living. This fact is 

 too frequently overlooked, especially by 

 those who have children and young people 

 to dress. In the case of an adult, clothing 

 is also reflective; and, although the actual 

 value of the garment may not be considered, 

 the general effect will very often proclaim 

 the wearer pretty accurately. It is the duty 

 of each individual to dress as well as the 

 means at command will allow, and it is just 

 as reprehensible for anyone to be careless 

 and untidy in this matter as it is for an- 

 other to spend more than he or she can 

 legitimately afford. To aress so far in con- 

 trariety with the general custom of the 

 period as to display eccentricity is, as a rule, 

 an exhibition of extreme vanity. 



With regard to children, many mothers 

 little know the effect that clothing has on a 

 child's mind, and how keen a sense of in- 

 justice is suffered by one who is made to 

 appear before school and playmates in some 

 garment that is felt to be a subject for ridi- 

 cule. A little girl may suffer keenly through 

 being made to wear shoes that are too large, 

 and which make her ungainly, or a dress 

 that is too long or too short or in other ways 

 unsuitable to her age and size. Many grown 

 people may say, "Then the sooner she over- 

 comes such a small trouble the better," en- 

 tirely forgetting how large "small" troubles 

 are to little folk, and how the fear of ridicule 

 may make a child become retiring and shy. 

 This applies especially to girls, who have a 

 greater refinement of cruelty in the persecu- 

 tion of each other than boys have. 



A bright little girl of a sweet disposition, 

 well known to the writer, had as a baby 

 a curvature of the spine, which, although 

 arrested, had left a slight protuberance just 

 above the waist. To conceal this she was 

 always dressed like her younger sister, in 

 loose frocks hanging from yokes. When 

 she was thirteen she suddenly became very 

 quiet and drooping, and, finding a change 



of scene did not benefit her at all, her 

 mother endeavored to win her confidence, 

 and discovered the child had overheard a 

 very injudicious remark made by a young 

 woman concerning her slight deformity. 

 This had set her grieving over the belief 

 that she would never be able to wear any 

 but "baby" dresses. Her mother and the 

 dressmaker consulted together, with the re- 

 sult that by the aid of a little padding she 

 was able to wear frocks similar to other 

 girls of her age, after which she quite re- 

 covered her former brightness. Another 

 incident illustrates the amount of common 

 sense possessed by many young children. 

 Two small boys had a mother who elected 

 to dress them somewhat after the style of 

 "Little Lord Fauntleroy." The younger of 

 the two being a manly little chap in spite of 

 his few years, objected to the large frilled 

 collar and cuffs that were very much in ev- 

 idence outside his jacket, and, while rev- 

 erencing his mother too much to openly 

 rebel, felt what he thought the humiliation 

 very keenly, and, being found crying, lisped, 

 amid his sobs, "I can't fink what mumma 

 wanth to dreth uth in thothe pillow thyams 

 for; ith all very well for girlth, but I fink 

 ith abthurd for boyths." Is there any grown 

 man that cannot appreciate that little fel- 

 low's feelings? 



There is, of course, another side to this 

 question, and many children are allowed too 

 much voice in the matter of what they shall 

 or shall not wear; but no child will ever 

 trouble greatly about these matters who is 

 dressed plainly and comfortably, and does 

 not continually hear gossip on dress among 

 their elders. By "plain" I do not mean ugly 

 dressing. It is always right to train a child's 

 eye to like pretty things, but it is still mo.^e 

 essential that he or she should be trained 

 not to like cheap finery. 



Young women who are employed away 

 from home during the day, often, on their 

 return, feeling almost too tired to take their 

 evening meal (perhaps putting off their out- 

 door garments somewhere handy and going 

 directly to the table) have only to experi- 

 ment regularly for a week or two to fully 

 realize the refreshing and awakening in- 

 fluence of a wash and change of shoes and 

 dress; as also how very much more appe- 

 tizing fooc will appear in consequence. 



