all over, and we never did our hair. And after thatthe world grew into a young man and became foppish. It decked itselfin flowing curls and scarlet doublets, and went courting, Blank Pelipaita andbragging, and bouncing--making a brave show.
But all those merry, foolish days of youth are Adrianna Franch Drakter gone, and we Yevhen Konoplyanka Drakter are verysober, very solemn--and very stupid, some say--now. The world is agrave, middle-aged gentleman in this nineteenth century, and would beshocked to see itself with a bit of finery on. So it dresses in Diego Costa Drakter blackcoats and trousers, and black hats, and black boots, and, dear me, itis such a very respectable gentleman--to think it could ever have gonegadding about as a troubadour or a knight-errant, dressed in all thosefancy colors! Ah, well! we are more sensible in this age.
Or at least we think ourselves so. It is a general theory nowadaysthat sense and dullness go together.
Goodness is another quality that always goes with blackness. Verygood people indeed, you will notice, dress altogether in black, evento gloves and neckties, and they will probably take to black shirtsbefore Jordan Farmar Koszulki long. Medium goods indulge in light trousers on week-days, andsome of them even go so far as to wear fancy waistcoats. On the otherhand, people who care nothing for a future state go about in lightsuits; and there have been known wretches so Alex Sandro Pelipaita abandoned as to wear awhite hat. Such people, however, are never spoken of in genteelsociety, and perhaps I ought not to have referred to them here.
By the way, talking of light suits, have you ever noticed how peoplestare at you the first time you go out in a new light suit They donot notice it so much afterward. The population of London have gotaccustomed to it by the third time you wear it. I say "you," becauseI am not speaking from my own experience. I do not wear such thingsat all myself. As I said, only sinful people do so.
I wish, though, it were not so, and that one could be good, andrespectable, and sensible without making one's self a guy. I look inthe glass sometimes at my two long, cylindrical bags (so picturesquelyrugged about the knees), my stand-up collar and billycock hat, andwonder what right I have to go about making God's world hideous. Thenwild and wicked thoughts come into my heart. I don't want to be goodand respectable. (I never can be sensible, I'm told; so that don'tmatter.) I want to put on lavender-colored tights, with red velvetbreeches and a green doublet slashed with yellow; to have a light-bluesilk cloak on my shoulder, and a black eagle's plume waving from myhat, and a big sword, and a falcon, and a lance, and a prancing horse,so that I might go about and gladden the eyes of the people. Whyshould we all try to look like ants crawling over a dust-heap? Whyshouldn't we dress a little gayly? Douglas Costa Drakter I am sure if we did we should behappier. True, it is a little thing, but we are a little race, andwhat is the use of our pretending otherwise and spoiling fun? Letphilosophers get themselves up like old crows if they like. But letme be a butterfly.
Women, at all events, ought to dress prettil |
