The Death of the Gentleman

[Harp]

Jeffersonian Farmer

...and after a hard day at the plow, retires to read Plato-in
ancient Greek, of course....

 

[Lauren]

He was inoculated with a phonograph needle.

Regards,

J

Wait, what movie is that from?

 

[jamespowers]

Wait, what movie is that from?

Not a movie that I know of. I got it from a good friend of my father's. He was 98 at the time.

Regards,

J

 

[RedShoesGirl]

what marc said

ditto

 

[RedShoesGirl]

This is my definition:... but there are no flip-flopped-camouflage-bermudas, dockers+company polo, suit+notie, all-year-long-pair of jeans + checked shirt, suit + winter-boots-in-june, because that's the only non-sneaker footwear he owns, wearing gentlemen.
...

glad you said YOUR definition, because gentlemen come in all kinds of clothing. judge a man not by what he wears or doesn't wear but by his deeds. i have known poor men who could not afford to dress as you described but were gentlemen all the same.

rsg

 

[BellyTank]

He was inoculated with a phonograph needle.

Regards,

J

Swallowed a Dictionary...


B
T

 

[carebear]

Swallowed a Dictionary...


B
T

My dad throws that one out.

 

[jamespowers]

Swallowed a Dictionary...


B
T

A whole set of encyclopedias is more like it.

 

[scotrace]

Well, that was dull.

Gentlemen in film/literature:

Charles Henry Smithson The French Lieutenant's Woman
Newland Archer The Age of Innocence
Hobson Arthur


Well-dressed = gentleman: One of the very best dressed, courtly and polished of the Victorians in America was Chester A. Arthur. Was he a gentleman? He was a machine politician on the take, holding a plumb appointment as Collector of the Port of New York.

Interesting discussion (except all that pasted blah blah)

 

[carebear]

A gentleman (or lady) is about how one behaves and how one carries themself.

A gentleman, beset by robbers and now wearing a burlap sack, is still a gentleman.

A gentleman, down on his luck, who wears his best weatherbeaten but cleaned up suit (and remains discrete so as not to be distracting) to more formal events is still a gentleman despite the shiny elbows. He remains a gentleman when wearing clean and mended work clothes day to day if they are his second best.

A gentleman, deprived of fancy book larnin', is still a gentleman if his speech, though unrefined or unsophisticated, is courteous, kind and honest.

 

[jamespowers]

A gentleman (or lady) is about how one behaves and how one carries themself.

A gentleman, beset by robbers and now wearing a burlap sack, is still a gentleman.

A gentleman, down on his luck, who wears his best weatherbeaten but cleaned up suit (and remains discrete so as not to be distracting) to more formal events is still a gentleman despite the shiny elbows. He remains a gentleman when wearing clean and mended work clothes day to day if they are his second best.

A gentleman, deprived of fancy book larnin', is still a gentleman if his speech, though unrefined or unsophisticated, is courteous, kind and honest.

So Our Man Godfrey in essence.

Regards,

J

 

[carebear]

So Our Man Godfrey in essence.

Regards,

J

Well, yeah. It's a nobility of spirit, not station.

 

[Marc Chevalier]

Interesting discussion (except all that pasted blah blah)

Love you, Scott!

lol

In any case, this whole thread is blah blah as long as someone focuses more on the trappings than on the essence.

.

 

[Paisley]

This is my definition:
...A gentleman farmer wears a tweed suit.

At church, maybe. Not when he's bailing hay or mucking out the barn!

 

[MissQueenie]

Labels are ridiculous things. They may be useful, sometimes, to assist us in an exercise in superficial classification, but they do not tell us anything about the object itself. If I place a golf ball in a pickle jar, it will be sorted out and placed with other jars of pickles. Perhaps, at first glance, many people will declare that it IS a pickle. But the thing itself, intrinsically, is not a pickle, and it never will be. How easily we are mislead by what is written on the outside!

I know a number of finely dressed, well-spoken, educated, men who carry themselves with grace and style. Some I would call gentlemen, some I certainly would not. But the exteriors are the same, and in my opinion it is the height of blind ignorance to take anything at face value -- especially people.

 

[Lord Jagged]

hey calm down. they're not all dead. there's quite a few in London.

That's just what I was thinking - I have been working in the City for the last year and there are more gents in tailored Saville row suits, overcoats and brollys than you can swing a cat at. Its nice to be one of the crowd for a change.

I'm with you on the gloves though. Apart from a few weeks in winter I don't wear gloves and rarely see them about town.

 

[herringbonekid]

this whole thread is blah blah as long as someone focuses more on the trappings than on the essence.

to be honest i'm more interested in the trappings. especially if its a brown SB peaked lapel belt-back with 20 inch cuffs. and a muted turquoise window-pane overcheck.

 

[carebear]

to be honest i'm more interested in the trappings. especially if its a brown SB peaked lapel belt-back with 20 inch cuffs. and a muted turquoise window-pane overcheck.

20 inch cuffs?

 

[herringbonekid]

you're right. 22" is better.

11" front to back. whassamatta ?

OH, you thought i meant cuff height !

that would be impractical.

 

[Marc Chevalier]

The gentleman's inch?

.