OCR Text |
Show f I 1 LIGHTS OF NEW YORK-By WALTER TEUMBULL The child of today Is born Into a world of wonders. His mother reaches for the telephone as he lies cradled In her arm. His first view through the window shows blm endless lines of automobiles and trucks. As he lies In his pertmbulator, he looks up to see a Bky full of ships. Tet Bay Long and I, In discussing this matter the other evening, decided that there are certain things the child of today wiH never know, things vanished forever, as the color of the past fades and is lost In the dusk of time. There was, for example, the four-Inch collar. Once a beau of those dear, dead days beyond be-yond recall got his neck encased In one of those collars, he never saw his feet again until he took It off. It passed closely below the ears and elevated ele-vated the chin to an extent that. If he wished to look meaningly Into a pair of feminine eyes, the owner of the collar had to bend from the waist, unless the girl was a giantess. The ordinary type of this article was made from a single turnover collar, which went up and come down again. It would have pained the alert advertising adver-tising man of today "a see all that blank space wasted Then there were the neckties, or cravats. Aside from the black string ties worn by certain of the older statesmen, there was a period in the history of the country when It seems probable that there were not half a dosen untied neck ornaments In the land. The bow ties either hitched on to the front collar button with a wire kp, or fastened at the back of the neck with a hook and eye. In the case of the long tie, the neckpiece was led around the collar and then the end of It was Inserted Into a sort of Blot and the tie pulled Into position. It was held there by a pin, fastened on the under side. When the untied As- cot and four-in-hand were Invented, learning to tie them properly was, to seek a simile of today, equivalent to learning to fly. Women were the first to become experts at tying the bow. When a girl went so far as to get the ends even on a young man's tie, It was an almost Infallible sign that her Interest In-terest in him was more than platonlc. The boy of today knows nothing of the thrill of corduroys, purchased at a gentlemen's pants emporium, coats and vests being separate articles of merchandise. mer-chandise. Nor Is he cognizant of the starched white ducks, the crease honed to razor keenness by some Chinese laundryman. I well remember remem-ber entrusting a best pair of white ducks to a country washerwoman. She dutifully starched them until they cracked, but creased them down the side seams, making It Impossible to walk In them. The damage could not be repaired in time for an Important date. It was a tragedy. Any old-timer will remember the era of the tight trousers. It was necessary nec-essary to pull them up at the knee be fore sitting down. On rising, It required re-quired skillful manipulation to get them to their former level. Compared Com-pared to them, a snake's skin was as baggy as a pair of plus fours. Then there were the square built coats, so |