Chapter I had “ made a fortune ” in 1873 , when were losing fortunes , and the magnificence of began then .
Magnificence , like the size of a fortune , is always comparative , as even may now perceive , if has happened to haunt in 1916 ; and were magnificent in day and place .
splendour lasted throughout all the years that saw spread and darken into , but reached its topmost during the period when kept a Newfoundland dog .
In , in those days , knew , and when there was a new purchase of sealskin , were got to windows to see it go by .
Trotters were out , in the winter afternoons , racing light sleighs on and ; recognized both the trotters and ; and again knew as well on summer evenings , when whizzed by in renewals of the snow-time rivalry .
For that matter , knew , could identify such a silhouette half a mile down , and thereby was sure who was going to , or to a reception , or coming from or to noon dinner or evening supper .
During the earlier years of this period , elegance of personal appearance was believed to rest more upon the texture of garments than upon their shaping .
A silk dress needed no remodelling when it was a year or so old ; it remained distinguished by merely remaining silk .
and wore broadcloth ; “ full dress ” was broadcloth with “ doeskin ” trousers ; and there were seen
In and would wear no other hat , and , without self-consciousness , went rowing in such hats .
Shifting fashions of shape replaced aristocracy of texture : , , , and , increasing in cunning and in power , found means to make new clothes old .
The long contagion of the “ Derby ” hat arrived : one season the crown of this hat would be a bucket ; the next it would be a spoon .
still kept bootjack , but high-topped boots gave way to shoes and “ congress gaiters ” ; and these were played through fashions that shaped them now with toes like box-ends and now with toes like the prows of .
Trousers with a crease were considered plebeian ; the crease proved that the garment had lain upon a shelf , and hence was “ ready-made ” ; these betraying trousers were called “ hand-me-downs , ” in allusion to the shelf .
In the early ' eighties , while bangs and bustles were having their way with , was invented : wore trousers as tight as stockings , dagger-pointed shoes , a spoon “ Derby , ” a single-breasted coat called a “ Chesterfield , ” with short flaring skirts , a torturing cylindrical collar , laundered to a polish and three inches high , while other neckgear might be a heavy , puffed cravat or a tiny bow fit for a doll 's braids .
With evening dress wore a tan overcoat so short that black coat-tails hung visible , five inches below the over-coat ; but after a season or two lengthened overcoat till it touched heels , and passed out of tight trousers into trousers like great bags .
Then , presently , was seen no more , though the word that had been coined for remained in the vocabularies of the impertinent .
It was a hairier day than this .
Beards were to ' fancy , and things as strange as the Kaiserliche boar-tusk moustache were commonplace .
“ Side-burns ” found nourishment upon childlike profiles ; great Dundreary whiskers blew like tippets over young shoulders ; moustaches were trained as lambrequins over forgotten mouths ; and it was possible for to wear a mist of white whisker upon throat only , not a newspaper in finding the ornament distinguished enough to warrant a lampoon .
Surely no more is needed to prove that so short a time ago were living in another age !
At the beginning of ' great period were of a pleasant architecture .
lacked style , but also lacked pretentiousness , and whatever does not pretend at all has style enough .
stood in .
, was built of brick upon a stone foundation , or of wood upon a brick foundation .
Usually had and ; often too .
There was ; there was ; and sometimes
From the opened , and ; and could show warrant to title -- for some reason bought books .
Commonly , sat more in than in while , when came formally , were kept to .
The upholstery of furniture was a little shabby ; but the hostile chairs and sofa of ” always looked new .
For all the wear and tear they got they should have lasted a thousand years .
were ; “ ” the largest ; ; .
And there was always ( where the sewing-machine usually was kept ) , and during the ' seventies there developed an appreciation of the necessity for .
Therefore placed in , and tore out a cupboard or two , set up a boiler beside the kitchen stove , and sought a new godliness , each with .
The great joke , that many-branched evergreen , was planted at this time .
At the rear of , was , called “ , ” and in there was , and called “ . ”
and cost seven or eight thousand dollars to build , and were classified as .
paid two dollars a week , and , in the latter part of this period , two dollars and a half , and finally three dollars a week .
was Irish , ordinarily , or German or it might be Scandinavian , but never native to unless happened to be .
had like wages , and sometimes , too , was lately , but much oftener was coloured .
After sunrise , on pleasant mornings , ; laughter and shouting went up and down dusty lengths , with a lively accompaniment of curry-combs knocking against back fences and walls , for loved to curry horses in .
always prefer to gossip in shouts instead of whispers ; and feel that profanity , unless it be vociferous , is almost worthless .
Horrible phrases were caught by and carried to for definition , sometimes at inopportune moments ; while would often merely repeat the phrases in some subsequent flurry of agitation , and yet bring about consequences so emphatic as to be recalled with ease in middle life .
have passed , ; and the introspective horses curried and brushed and whacked and amiably cursed -- those good old horses switch their tails at flies no more .
For all their seeming permanence might as well have been buffaloes -- or the buffalo laprobes that grew bald in patches and used to slide from ' knees and hang unconcerned , half way to the ground .
have been transformed into other likenesses , or swept away , like the woodsheds where were kept the stove-wood and kindling that and always quarrelled over : who should fetch it .
Horse and and , and all are gone .
went quickly , yet so silently that whom served have not yet really noticed that are vanished .
So with other vanishings .
There were on .
At the rear door of there was no platform , but a step where clung in wet clumps when the weather was bad and crowded .
-- if not too absent-minded -- put fares into a slot ; and paced the heaving floor , but would rap remindingly with elbow upon the glass of the door to little open platform if the nickels and did not appear to coincide in number .
A lone mule drew , and sometimes drew off the track , when would get out and push on again .
really owed courtesies like this , for was genially accommodating : could whistle to from an window , and would halt at once and wait for while shut the window , put on hat and cloak , went , found an umbrella , told what to have for dinner , and came forth from .
made little objection to such gallantry on the part of : were wont to expect as much for on like occasion .
In good weather the mule pulled a mile in a little less than twenty minutes , unless the stops were too long ; but when came , doing mile in five minutes and better , would wait for .
Nor could have endured such a thing , because the faster were carried the less time had to spare !
In the days before deathly contrivances hustled through lives , and when had no telephones -- another ancient vacancy profoundly responsible for leisure -- had time for everything : time to think , to talk , time to read , time to wait for !