The Common Black Coat

It would appear from one of their trade organs that tailors are becoraing a Httle anxious about the prospects of the black coat of civilization. They fear it is in danger of beiug superseded by a garinent of lighter hue, if not of variegated pattern. Perhaps, if they were to give voice to their deeper apprehensions, they would say that there was more at stake than the black coat. There can, at any rate, be little doubt, whether the tailors are williug to admit it or not, that with the fate of the black coat is bouud up that of the black waistcoat. Whether the two have been lovely and pleasant in their lives is a matter of opinión, but wc feel sure that iii death they would not be divided. We mean no disrespect to the vest in describiug it as a parasite of the coat. It is a hura ble dependant which has only found its way into society under the wing of its influential patrón, to whom it adheres with singJe breasted fidelity, rew arded on the other side by an attacbment which is rarely broken save for a short period during the summer inonths. The trousers, it is trne, are connected with the two upper garments by nosuch feudal tie, but their own union is complete' and, except in very hot weather, indissoluble. Henee, the more farsighted tailors no doubt . perceive clearly enough that if the black coat goes we shall be within measurable distance of the "tweed suit. " Nor are there wanting those who would do their best to accelerate the catastrophe. Animated by the restless spirit of the age, its impatience of sobriety and its thirst for change and color in costume, as in life, there is a school of so called reformers who are endeavoring to urge the wearers of black coats to revolt. Let them give free play, exclaim these anarchistic counselors, to "their taste in checks and stripes, " and they will be able to cut a far more picturesque figure at a far smaller annual outlay. With the outlay, of conrse, the public is not concerned, though that matter, doubtless, is not without its interest for the tailors, but we own to sorue uneasiness at the idea of the entire comruuúty indulging its multifarious taste in checks and stripes in a hcadlong pursuit of the picturesque. We have all of us, indeed, seen the experiment tried under very favorable circumstances, but with more than dubious resuits by those little bands of vocal and instrumental artists, generally six or eight in number, who are usually to be met with at race meetings or on the sands at popular seaside resorts. These pioneers of dress reform have entirely discarded the black coat, preferring one of gayer color, with noticeably elongated tails, and the freedom with which they indulge their taste in checks and stripes mayalmostbe said to border upon license. Yet the effect, even with the addition of an open shirt collar of Elizbethanproportions, a corked face and a banjo cannot be described