Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 06.djvu/527

* DRESDEN, BATTLE OF. 457 DBESS. rat, Willi 20.000 cavalry, swi-jd arouiul their left Jiaiik and look them in tlie rear, crushing out all resistance and taking more than 13,000 ]>risoners. The Prussians in the centre wore prevented from going to the sujiport of either wing by a furious cannonade and repeated charges of the Old and the Xew tiuard. At four o'clock in the afternoon the Allies began the retreat into Bohemia. The loss on either side in killed and wounded was about 7000 or 8000, but more than 20,000 prison- ers fell into the hands of the French. DKESS (OF. dresser, drescer, dreeier. It. dri:- ziiic. to arrange, dress, from Lat. directus, p.p. of (lirigere, to direct, from rfi"-, apart + regere, to guide). The covering which men and women use for protection against heat or cold, and for the conventional need of hiding parts of the body, or the whole of it except the head and hands. Cus- tom, in this regard, has changed continually dur- ing the historic epoch in the force and in the amount of its general acceptance. It is proposed to treat here only the practical or hygienic, the economical, and. in a way. the social side of the question, leaving for the article CosTUjrE all questions of the decorative effect deliberately sought, or more unconsciously obtained, by wear- ing apparel and ornaments of the person. The effect of climate upon the clothing of man- kind is not as immediate as would seem expedient or even necessary. The people of southern Aus- tralia had scarcely invented clothing when the whites first explored their country, their only garment being the rain-cloak of leaves thrown over the shoulders. The Patagonians. even until recent times, have gone entirely naked, using loin- cloths as their only habitual wear, and heavy covering only for defense against wind or rain or snow. The Indians of Colorado were absolutely unclothed as late as 1825. Those- of the colder parts of Xorth America wore some- what elaborate garments for occasions of cere- mony, but started for the hunt or on the war- path naked, save for the slight loin-cloth and moccasins of deer-skin. The same customs held among the non-settled Indians even at the close of the nineteenth century. Yinter and summer seem to have been alike to the redskins, from Hudson's Bay to the Gulf of ilexico. except as to the hours of complete repose, and the seat by the camp-fire or in the communal lodge : but there is one modification of this statement: the almost nude figure was enveloped in a blanket, which was thrown off when there was need of activity. It is very curious to note how sudden is the change when we go still farther north. The peo- ple of the ice are clothed in a way as deliberately complete as people of European civilization could be : defended against frost by heavy and com- plete garments of fur-bearing skins. It would Ecem that the 'land of the sunless winter' could not have been inhabited until the arts of man were so far developed that skins could be cut out to pattern and sewn together strongly: obviously a very advanced st?ge of early civilization. This is true even if the regions north of what is now the limit of tree-growth wore inhabited before the time of extreme cold. Sealskin, reindeer-hide, bearskin, are all used, dressed with the hair on, and bird-skins dressed with the feathers. Water- proof garments are made of the intestines of dif- ferent animals. Both sexes wear troiisers. or leg- pieces made separate, and put on separately, and a shirt worn over the trousers, boots or stock- ings, and a hood. All these garments are of fur, and they may be doubled or tripled. These heavy skin garments are worn without underclothes, or garments of cotton or wool. When an Eskimo stoojis, the shirt may be drawn away from the waistband of the trousers, leaving the naked skin exposed, even in the extreme cold of winter. This separation between the heavy garments was meant for the readier diying of that perspiration which active movement in the heavy garments would cause to start. It is noticeable that the Eskimos use but little covering when in the snow-built winter hut, warmed by the lamp burning perpetually when seal-oil is plenty. The men are naked and the women wear but a slight covering. There is an inevitable comparison, here, with the tradi- tional custom of the Japanese, who, with the most elaborate and over-refined social organiza- tion, highly developed arts of convenience and luxury, and especially cheap and beautiful textile fabrics, have never develoiied any artificial sense of tiie need of clothes for 'decency.' The whole family, young and old, bathe together in one or several tubs; the porters are naked excei)t for the slightest loin-cloth, and the women who do porters' work are hardly more clothed, and bathe and dress in the open without sense of immodesty. Xor does it appear that this is the result of stead- ily warm weather, or that the customs in this respect change much, from Kagoshima, in the lat- itude and general climatic conditions of Savan- nah, to the northernmost island of Yezo, in the latitude of Boston. In the lives of people in warmer climates a new condition assumes great importance. This is the question of personal cleanliness and the protection of the body, once cleansed, from the too rapid action of that which might soil it. The brown people of the Pacific islands bathe, anoint themselves with cocoanut oil, and use coverings, formerly made of bark cloth, lappa, or masi, chiefly to protect them- selves from the undue heat of the sun, or from rough contact with objects of nature. In like manner, the Greeks of all historic times seem to have used the bath constantly and to have anoint- ed the body with olive oil ; and the garments of the Greeks, whether the earliest peplos. open down one side and showing body, thigh, and leg at every movement, or the more closed chiton and himation of later times, are to be considered rather as a means of protecting the body against disfigureiuent, temporary or permanent, than for any other purpose. It is noticeable that in very cold countries no such habits of personal cleanli- ness seem ever to prevail, except under a very highly artificial state of society. Mowgli may bathe daily in the deep rivers of the Indian jun- gle, but the wolf-boys of the Xorth German leg- ends have no such habits as that. This brings us immediately to the considera- tion of underclothing, which is almost wholly a thing of modem concern. The chiton of the Greeks, the skirt of the Egyptians worn by cither sex, the blanket-like wraps of the early inhabit- ants of America and of Xew Zealand, and the enveloping wraps of cotton or similar stuff of the Malays of .Tava and Sumatra, although serving as an aid to personal cleanliness, are the outer as well as the inner garment. But one garment is worn, or but two' in all, one of which covers such parts of the body as are not covered by the other.