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accounted by persons of taste eccentric or absurd^ or
both j while he who follows slowly and at a distance
the footsteps of Fashion is commonly regarded as
not of this world,though in it. To hit the happy
medium,to adapt the prevailing style of dress to your
size, bearing and manner, is true art, an art not
always easy of acquirement, judging from the
numerous failures to accomplish it. Unfortunately,
no precise rules can be laid down in the matter,for
what is becoming to one man is often atrocious when
worn by another; yet in this very difficulty lies the
charm of dress—the scope it affords for individual
taste and selection. A profusion of jewellery,denot-
ing doubtful taste even when worn by a woman,
is unequivocally vulgar in a man. True, it may
indicate wealth; but the practice savours strongly of
Israel in Houndsditch, and should be religiously
avoided. King Edward,who may safely be taken as
a model of all that becomes a gentleman in dress,is
rarely seen wearing more than one finger ring, while
in his choice of cloth patterns he displays that
strong commonsense and correct judgment which he
brings to bear upon most of the concerns of life.
If there were tailors in England who had the slightest
conception of cutting and fitting clothes,instead of
the unskilled cloth butchers of execrable taste who
abound in the West End of London and prey upon
callow youth and indefinite dandies, the King, in
common with some of his subjects, would be
attractively and sensibly dressed. In America and
France tailoring is a science and an art; in Great
Britain it makes freaks of men and frumps of
women. Study, therefore, your apparel, that it fit
and be fit; and don't say of whatever your tailor
may please to send you, "These clothes arc good