A hermit in the Himalayas

A HERMIT IN THE HIMALAYAS

really necessary in city life, but they are not so necessary here. Why
should a man continue the habit of worrying about the hang of his
tie here, where all his environment bids him be free as Nature is
free?

In Himalaya uncreased trousers are most natural, almost inevit-
able, for one cannot carry heavy press-irons around these moun-
tains; in Hertford Street, Mayfair, they are unnatural, an error of
taste. There is the difference, however, that whereas Himalaya is
more interested in the wearer, Hertford Street is more interested in
the trousers!

Yet I can understand how a man's aesthetic taste may induce
him, for his own satisfaction, to rebut this liberating influence and
even persuade him to take as much care over his personal appearance
in such primal solitudes as in the buzzing crowd of a fashionable
drawing-room. 'Tis all a matter of taste and temperament. Let a
man do as he pleases^ when he enters these wide doorless domains of
mountain and forest. Let him be happy in his own individual way,
and not necessarily in the way which others would impose upon him.

Brusque, bearded Carlyle has given us in his peculiar panting
style a philosophy of clothes and shown us how, in their glass, we
may read the man. Half the tailors* advertisements tell us of the
importance of wearing tftfc right habiliments. Fashion and Fastidi-
ousness are the dictatonaf rulers of the world. Only the millionaire
and the sage can afford, to wear shabby suits or the wrong dress.
Not needing society's good opinion, the world has to accept them
anyhow. But they are the Tare oddities, whom we meet once in a
while. The others must kcGp their ties straight or their pride will fall
to the earth, devastated by the censorious frowns and shallow judge-
ment of the fashionable.