The vestiarian profession has always been ill-treated by the world.
Men have owed much, and in more senses than one, to their tailors, and
have been accustomed to pay their debt in sneers and railleries--often
in nothing else. The stage character of the tailor is stereotyped from
generation to generation; his goose is a perennial pun; and his
habitual melancholy is derived to this day from the flatulent diet on
which he _will_ persist in living--cabbage. He is effeminate,
cowardly, dishonest--a mere fraction of a man both in soul and body.
He is represented by the thinnest fellow in the company; his starved
person and frightened look are the unfailing signals for a laugh; and
he is never spoken to but in a gibe at his trade:
'Thou liest, thou thread,
Thou thimble,
Thou yard, three-quarters, half-yard, quarter, nail;
Away thou rag, thou quantity, thou remnant;
Or I shall so bemete thee with thy yard,
As thou shalt think on prating while thou liv'st!'
All this is not a very favourable specimen of the way in which the
stage holds the mirror up to nature. We may suppose that a certain
character of effeminacy attached to a tailor in that olden time when
he was the fashioner for women as well as men; but now that he has no
professional dealings with the fair sex but when they assume masculine
'habits,' it is unreasonable to continue the stigma. In like manner,
when the cloth belonged to the customer, it was allowable enough to
suspect him of a little amiable weakness for cabbage; but now that he
is himself the clothier, the joke is pointless and absurd. Tailors,
however, can afford to laugh, as well as other people, at their
conventional double--or rather _ninth_, for at least in our own day
they have wrought very hard to elevate their calling into a science.
The period of lace and frippery of all kinds has passed away, and this
is the era of simple form, in which sartorial genius has only cloth to
work upon as severely plain as the statuary's marble. It is true, we
ourselves do not understand the 'anatomical principles' on which the
more philosophical of the craft proceed, nor does our scholarship
carry us quite the length of their Greek (?) terminology; but we
acknowledge the result in their workmanship, although we cannot trace
the steps by which it is brought about.
Very different is the plan now from what it was in the days of Shemus
nan Snachad, James of the Needle, hereditary tailor to Vich Ian Vohr,
when men were measured as classes rather than as individuals, and when
a cutter had only to glance at the customer to ascertain to which
category he belonged.
'You know the measure of a well-made man? Two double nails to the
small of the leg'----
'Eleven from haunch to heel, seven round the waist. I give your honour
leave to hang Shemus, if there's a pair of shears in the Highlands
that has a baulder sneck than her ain at the _camadh an truais_ (shape
of the trews).' And so the thing was done, without tape or figures,
without a word of Greek or anatomy! However, the anatomical tailors we
shall not meddle with for the present, because we do not understand
their science; nor with the Greek tailors, because we fear to take
the liberty; nor with the Hebrew tailors, because we are only a
Gentile ourselves. Our object is to draw attention to the doings of an
individual who interferes with no science but his own, and who
patronises exclusively his mother-tongue, which is not Hebrew, but
broad Scotch.
This individual is Mr Macdonald, a near neighbour of ours, who, about
eighteen years ago, listened with curiosity, but not with dread, to
the clamorous pretensions of the craft to which he belonged. At that
time, every man had a 'new principle' of his own for the sneck of the
shears, some theoretical mode of cutting, which was to make the coat
fit like the skin. Our neighbour, who had a practical and mechanical,
rather than a speculative head, resolved not to be behind in the race
of competition, but to proceed in a different way. 'It is all very
well,' thought he, 'to talk of principles and theories; but with the
requisite apparatus, the human figure may be measured as accurately as
a block of stone;' and accordingly he set to work, not to invent a
theory, but to construct a machine. This machine, though exhibited
some time ago in the School of Arts, and received with great favour,
we happened not to hear of till a few days ago; but a visit to our
neighbour puts it now in our power to report that his apparatus does
much more, as we shall presently explain, than measure a customer.
The machine consists of three perpendicular pieces of wood, the centre
one between six and seven feet high, with a plinth for the measuree to
stand upon. The wood is marked from top to bottom with inches and
parts of an inch, and is furnished with slides, fitting closely, but
movable at the pleasure of the operator. When the customer places
himself upon this machine, standing at his full height, he has much
the appearance of a man suffering the punishment of crucifixion, only
his arms, instead of being extended, hang motionless by his sides,
with the fingers pointed. A slide is now run up between the victim's
legs, to give the measurement of what is technically called the fork;
while others mark in like manner upon the inch scale, the position of
the knees, hips, tips of the fingers, shoulder, neck, head, &c. When
the operator is satisfied that he has thus obtained the accurate
admeasurement of the figure, in its natural position when standing
erect, the gentleman steps from the machine, and turning round, sees
an exact diagram, in wood, of his own proportions.
This instrument, it will be seen, is very well adapted for the object
for which it was intended; but it would, nevertheless, have escaped
our inspection but for the other purposes of observation to which it
has been applied by the ingenious inventor. He has measured in all
about 5000 adults, registering in a book the measurement of each, with
the names written by themselves. Among the autographs, we find that of
Sir David Wilkie in the neighbourhood of the names of half a dozen
American Indians. Here would be a new branch of inquiry for those who
are addicted to the study of character through the handwriting. With
such abundant materials before them, they would doubtless be able to
determine the height and general proportions of their unseen
correspondents. In the article of height, many men correspond to the
minutest portion of an inch; but in the other proportions of the
figure, it would seem that no two human beings are alike. So great is
the disparity in persons of the same height, that the trunk of an
individual of five feet and a half, is occasionally found to be as
long as that of a man of six feet. In fact, Mr Macdonald, in an early
period of his measurements, was so confounded by the difference in the
proportions, that he at once came to the conclusion, that our
population is made up of mixed tribes of mankind.
In the midst of all this diversity, the question was, What were the
proper proportions? or, in other words, What proportions constituted a
handsome figure? and here our vestiarian philosopher was for a long
time at a loss. At length, however, he took 300 measurements, without
selection, including the length of the trunk, of the head and neck,
and of the fork, and adding them all together, struck the average:
from which it resulted, that the average head and neck gives 10-1/2
inches; trunk, 25 inches; and fork, 32 inches; making the whole
figure, from the crown of the head to the sole of the _shoe_, 5 feet
7-1/2 inches. The word we have italicised is the drawback: a tailor
measures with the shoes on; and Mr Macdonald can only approximate to
the truth when he deducts half an inch for the sole, and declares the
average height of our population to be five feet seven inches. On this
basis, however, he constructed a scale of beauty applying to all
heights: If a man of 5 feet 7 inches give 10-1/2 inches for head and
neck, 25 for trunk, and 31-1/2 for fork, what should another give, of
6 feet, or any other height? The approximation of a man's actual
measurement to this rule of three determines his pretensions in the
way of symmetry; and the inventor of the _shibboleth_ has found it so
far to answer, that a figure coming near the rule invariably pleases
the eye, and gives the assurance of a handsome man. Independently of
this advantage, a man of such proportions has great strength, and is
able to withstand the fatigue of violent exercise for a longer period
than one less symmetrically formed.
The term 'adult,' however, used by Mr Macdonald to designate those he
measured, is not satisfactory--it does not inform us that the persons
measured had reached their full development; for men continue to grow,
as has been shewn by M. Quetelet, even after twenty-five. The height
given, notwithstanding--five feet seven inches--in all probability
approximates pretty closely to the true average; and the very
different result shewn in Professor Forbes's measurements in the
University must be set pretty nearly out of the question. The number
of Scotsmen measured by the professor was 523 in all; but these were
of eleven different ages, from fifteen to twenty-five, all averaged
separately; and supposing the number of each age to have been alike,
this would give less than fifty of the age of twenty-five--the average
height of whom was 69.3 inches. But independently of the smallness of
the number, the professor's customers were volunteers, and it is not
to be supposed that under-sized persons would put themselves forward
on such an occasion. It may be added, that even the height of the
boot-heels of young collegians of twenty-five would tend to falsify
the average.
Men do not only differ in their proportions from other men, but from
themselves. The arms and legs may be paired, but they are not matched,
and in every respect one side of the body is different from the other:
the eyes are not set straight across the face, neither is the mouth;
the nose is inclined to one side; the ears are of different sizes, and
one is nearer the crown of the head than the other; there are not two
fingers, nor two nails on the fingers, alike, and the same
disagreement runs through the whole figure. This, however, is so
common an observation, that we should not have thought it necessary to
mention it, but for the bearing the facts given by our statist have
upon the common theory by which the irregularity is sought to be
accounted for. This declares, that use is the cause of the greater
growth of one limb, &c.: that the right hand, for instance, is larger
than the left, because it is in more active service. It appears,
however, that although the left limbs are in general smaller, this is
not, as it is usually supposed, invariably the case; while the ears
and eyes, that are used indiscriminately, present the same relative
difference of size. We do not, therefore, make our own proportions in
this respect: we come into the world with them, and our occupations
merely exaggerate a natural defect. An idle man will have one arm half
an inch longer than the other; while a woman, who has been accustomed
in early years to carry a child, exhibits a difference amounting
sometimes to an inch and a half.
When these facts were first mentioned to us, we looked with some
curiosity at the machine from which we had just stepped out; and there
we found an illustration of them not highly flattering to our
self-esteem. Knees, hips, shoulders, ears, all were so ill-assorted,
that it seemed as if Nature had been actually trying her 'prentice
hand upon our peculiar self. It was in vain to bethink ourselves of
the physical eccentricities of the distinguished men of other times:
'Ammon's great son one shoulder had too high;
Such Ovid's nose, and, sir, you have an eye!'--
we might have gone through tho whole inventory of the figure, and
concluded the quotation:
'Go on, obliging creatures, make me see
All that disgraced my betters met in me.
Say, for my comfort, languishing in bed,
Just so immortal Maro held his head;
And when I die, be sure you let me know--
Great Homer died three thousand years ago!'
What we had seen, however, was only the length of the figure; but we
were informed by our philosophic tailor, that the limbs, &c., are
likewise irregularly placed as regards breadth. The trunk of the body
is of various shapes, which he distinguishes as the oval, the
circular, and the flat. The first has the arms placed in the middle;
in the second, they are more towards the back, and relatively long;
and in the third, more towards the front, and relatively short. The
length of the forearm should be the length of the lower part of the
leg, and if either longer or shorter, the difference appears in the
walk. If shorter, the walk is a kind of waddle, the elbows inclining
outwards; if longer, it is distinguished by a swinging motion, as if
the person carried weights in his hands. If the circumference of the
body, measured with an inch-tape just below the shoulders, be smaller
than the circumference of the hips, the person will rock in walking,
and plant his feet heavily upon the ground. If greater, so that the
chief weight is above the limbs, the step will be light, as is
familiarly seen in corpulent men, whose delicate mode of walking we
witness with ever-recurring surprise. If the shoulders slope
downwards, with the spine bending inwards, the individual 'cannot
throw a stone, or handle firearms with dexterity.' When inclined
forwards, and well relieved from the body, he may be a proficient in
these exercises. A peculiarity in walking is given by the size of the
head and neck being out of proportion; and an instance is mentioned of
a man being discharged from the army, on account of his conformation
rendering it impossible for him to keep his head steady.
All these are curious and suggestive particulars. It is customary to
refer awkwardness of manner to bad habit, and such diseases as
consumption either to imprudence or hereditary taint; but it may be
doubted whether taints are not mainly the result of original
conformation. Habit and imprudence may doubtless aggravate the evil,
just as exercise may enlarge a member of the body; but it is nature
which sows the seeds of decay in her own productions. Physically, the
child is a copy of the parents, even to their peculiarities of gait;
and these peculiarities would seem to depend on the correct or
incorrect balance of the members of the body. When the conformation is
of a kind which interferes with the play of the lungs, the same
transmission of course takes place, and consumption may be the fatal
inheritance. If the arrangement of the parts were perfect, it may be
doubted--for symmetry is the basis of health as well as
beauty--whether we should ever hear of such a thing as 'taint in the
blood.' If this theory were to gain ground, it would simplify much the
practice of medicine; for the disease would stand in visible and
tangible presence before the eyes, and the employment of inventions,
to counteract and finally conquer the eccentricities of nature, would
be governed by science, and thus relieved from the suspicion of
quackery, which at present more or less attaches to it. To pursue
these speculations, however, would lead us too far; and before
concluding, we must find room for a few more of our practical
philosopher's observations.
All good mechanics, it seems, have large hands and thick and short
fingers; which is pretty nearly the conclusion arrived at by
D'Arpentigny in _La Chirognomonie_, although the captain adds, that
the hands must be _en spatule_--that is to say, with the end of the
fingers enlarged in the form of a spatula. The hand is generally the
same breadth as the foot: a fact recognised by the country people,
who, when buying their shoes at fairs--which were the usual
mart--might have been seen thrusting in their hand to try the breadth,
when they had ascertained that the length was suitable. A short foot
gives a mincing walk, while a long one requires the person to bring
his body aplomb with the foot before taking the step, which thus
resembles a stride. Good dancers have the limbs short as compared with
the body, which has thus the necessary power over them; but if too
short, there is a deficiency of dexterity in the management of the
feet.
In conclusion, it will be seen, we think, that there is much to be
learned even in the business of the shears. There is no trade whatever
which will not afford materials for thought to an intelligent man, and
thus enlarge the mind and elevate the character.