" Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy. But not expressed in fancy; rich, not gaudy; For the apparel oft claims a man."

- Shakespeare.

Once it " took nine tailors to make a man," and no less a person than Byron vouched for this ancient lie. Nowadays, it takes a Man as is a Man to make a Tailor, and a Fat Bank Account to pay him.

It is not the province of the writer to presume to lay down hard and fast rules for the dress of the bachelor. It is granted that he knows best how he would dress, according to his station. As a " London tradesman in a dress suit reminds one of a doyley on a stove lid," clothes have un-made the man quite as often as they've made him. King Edward, who is taken as a model of civilized dress from Singapore to Sitka, displays common sense and judgment that every bachelor may do well to emulate, especially in the matter of jewelry. " Rarely does the king wear more than one finger ring," says a London haberdasher's journal. A profusion of jewelry is unequivocally vulgar in a man, even though it may indicate wealth.

To hit the happy medium between Frenzied Fashion and Moldy Modes, adapt the prevailing style of dress to your bearing and manner. To do this is to be master of one of the fine arts. Study, therefore, your apparel that it may be fit for function and form. An ill-fitting coat is a crime against good taste. First, have your clothes fit you; then fit your clothes, that they " shall not make a false report." " Mark Twain " has said that " one cannot tell from the looks of a frog how far it can jump," but more often than not a man is judged by the clothing he wears. Whether they are built in the Rue de la Paix, New Bond Street, Fifth Avenue, or Sutter Street, does not particularly matter, so long as they fit. The unskilled cloth butchers of the West End of London have made many a man look like a suit of pajamas on an umbrella stand.

Togs that become one man may make another resemble a mongrel in a fancy blanket. As plaids were invented for the rail-bird, stripes for the jail-bird, and tweeds for Tammany Hall, so do various other less pronounced styles adapt themselves to the various pursuits and professions. The fitness of clothes is quite as important as the fit, and the bachelor who devotes a little time and thought to his apparel will soon be as fit as possible.

"Be not vain of thy covering," and remember that "it's the man beneath the clothes "that counts with most people. One meets occasionally a man who, like Adam, " doesn't give a fig what he wears." But custom and climate combine to give him a certain responsibility in the matter, although he's generally the sort of fellow whose apparel doesn't concern people so long as he wears something.

There's a happy medium between a dandy and a " Dirty Dick," and he who strikes it is to be congratulated, for none shall dare say, like Coriolanus, that you are " a fool in good clothes."

"A smart coat is a good letter of introduction"

BUT

' A slovenly dress betokens a careless mind." ' Fashion is more powerful than any tyrant."

The Londoner has the reputation of being the best dressed man in the world. Search for him not in the City, where silk hats and tan shoes are at either end of the same man, with a short-tailed coat and a bulldog pipe between. Rather in Mayfair, the Pall Mall clubs, and the Piccadilly promenade this glass of fashion is to be found.

Mrs. Dr. Grundy has prescribed the following tablets which are taken by the patient before each function with good result. It may be added that any attempt to keep up in motoring fashions will result in insanity or inebriety. Fashion shows herself fickle indeed in this raiment, and what is new to-day is old to-morrow. For other occasions, however, the tabulated form is sufficiently correct, regardless of seasons.

" They eat and drink and scheme and plod And go to church on Sunday; And go to church on Sunday; But more of Mrs. Grundy."

" There is fashion in all things, as in dogs going to church."