Clothes Make the Man

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"Clothes make the man, and you can't expect to make a good impression unless you keep up your personal appearance." This is the remark of one of the young fellows at one of our fashionable clubs as he is talking to another member. "You can judge a man by his coat, and appearances win every time." "I wish to take exception," said the one addressed. "I believe a man's personality will assert itself every time, and people will take your real worth and recognize a man's a man for a' that." "I am willing to wager a thousand dollars to one that I am right," said the pessimistic gentleman, "and stand ready to make good my assertion." "I'll wager a thousand even that you are wrong," said the optimist, "I am ready to be shown." The agreement is signed and sealed, and the pessimist immediately makes ready to prove "clothes versus the man," and the next day he starts out disguised as a tramp. On his way he meets some of his old friends and acquaintances, who cut him dead, and even the dog with whom he has always been friendly will not recognize him. He goes into a restaurant, asks credit for a meal and gets "fired." He tries to make a "touch" from a friend, "Nothing doing." He goes to sleep on a bench in the park, and is roughly awakened by a policeman and told to "move on." He is thoroughly disgusted and his optimistic friend is thoroughly satisfied he has lost and his opinion is contradicted by facts. The test is not finished; he must now prove that the clothes make the man. He outfits himself in a swell suit of new clothes and goes over the same scenes, meets the same friends and people, but is treated with the greatest respect and courtesy; the best is none too good for him, and he thus establishes his assertion that clothes make the man. Back to the club once more, the pessimist wins, collects his thousand from his friend, while they make merry over the experiences of the winner and the loss of the loser.