who did not possess
the right to wear any civil or military uniform were permitted to make
their appearance at court in ordinary evening dress, which ultimately
had the effect of giving a sort of _bourgeois_ flavor to imperial
entertainments. The present kaiser, however, proceeded to change all
this before he had been very long on the throne, and having noticed
that at the court of his English grandmother, no one is allowed to
appear at any of the state entertainments or functions in ordinary
evening dress,--the only exception made being in favor of the United
States embassy,--he inaugurated similar regulations at Berlin.

According to these sumptuary decrees gentlemen who are invited to
entertainments at court, and who for any reason have no right to
military, naval or civil service uniform, are compelled to appear in a
species of court dress, consisting of a coat cut after the fashion of
the last, rather than of the present century. Its color is black, or
dark blue, as are also the revers, the collar and the cuffs; with it
are worn black, tight fitting knee breeches, black silk stockings,
and low patent leather shoes with gold buckles. A three-cornered
_chapeau_, without feathers, and a court sword, complete this costume.

The emperor likewise directed that all officials of the court and the
civil service, namely, every man who did not happen to belong either
to the army or to the navy, should wear at court balls and at all
great state entertainments, white knee breeches, and white silk
stockings, with low, gold-buckled shoes, in lieu of the blue, black,
or white gold-laced trousers that had until then been habitually worn
with the gold-embroidered swallow-tail coat, which constitutes the
uniform of the German civil service, and of court officialdom. Until
that time, the only European court at which knee breeches had been
insisted upon at court and state entertainments, was that of Great
Britain. They were likewise _de rigueur_ at the Tuileries during the
reign of Napoleon III. The kaiser, however, came to the conclusion
that continuations of this kind gave a more brilliant and dressy
appearance to court functions than long trousers, and accordingly the
latter are barred, save in the case of officers of the army and navy.

At the imperial court of Berlin there are four types of receptions
or _cours_, the latter being the French word which has clung to these
state functions ever since the reign of Frederick the Grea