Nasby in Exile: or, Six Months of Travel in England, Ireland, Scotland, France, Germany, Switzerland and Belgium, with many things not of travel — John Locke — John Shaqi
Nasby in Exile: or, Six Months of Travel in England, Ireland, Scotland, France, Germany, Switzerland and Belgium, with many things not of travel
John Locke · en
And in a minute No. 3 came in with the same exclamation. An examination
of the addresses on the wrapping paper showed, however, that each had
received the clothes intended for him, notwithstanding that each suit
would have better fitted some other man. And then I soothed them by
explaining that the English tailor makes all clothes alike; that he goes
upon the supposition that every man should be so high, and so broad, and
that measurement is a mere form gone through with as a professional
fraud, the same as a lawyer looks the wisest when he knows the least;
and that to make any fuss about it would result in nothing, and the only
thing to do was to take them, pay for them, and wear them while in
England. They were no worse off than everybody else, and that they
should be philosophical and content. One remarked, with a great deal of
truth, that all the philosophy in the world wouldn't make a six foot man
look well in a pair of trowsers constructed for a five foot sixer, and
another that he knew of no philosophy that would support one under the
trying affliction of a coat that bagged on the shoulders and in the
back, and that had no more shape to it than a bean sack.
That is where they were wrong. That is what philosophy is made for.
England has given the world its greatest philosophers, her philosophers
being made necessary by her tailors, the same as every country that
cherishes an especially poisonous serpent, also grows a particularly
powerful antidote, and the snake and antidote grow together.
The women dress a trifle worse than the men--their dressmakers are a
trifle worse than their tailors. If an English woman would only buy her
gowns ready made, it would be better, for there would be a chance--only
a slight one, it is true, but yet a chance--of her getting a fit; but
she will not. She goes to the most expensive modiste, "to get something
good," and then all hope of a prettily dressed woman is gone, and gone
forever.
[Sidenote: A BADLY DRESSED PEOPLE.]
You can tell an American or French woman as far as you can see one. The
neatly fitting dress, so neatly fitting as to make you almost think the
woman had been melted and poured into it, the dress of which an American
girl said, that when she got into it she felt as if she had been born
again; the neat little shoe; the grace with which the dress is carried,
and the grace of the woman who carries it; all contrast terribly with
the angular gown, the shawl badly hung, and awkwardly worn, the ugly
shoe and the large foot it covers, and the square, steady,
grenadier-like step of the English woman.
No matter how expensive the material, or how costly the garments, no
matter how much Nature has done for the Englishwomen, (and they are, as
a rule, magnificent specimens of womankind,) they can't dress, and
consequently lose half their attractiveness. They have strength, but
they sadly lack grace.