Flannel

“ The arguments appear to be in favor of the practice, provided that the thickness of the flannel be proportioned to the seasons of the year. In winter it should be thick; in summer it can scarcely be too thin. Flannel is preferable to linen or calico, because, although it may be saturated with perspiration, it never strikes cold to the skin; whereas linen, under similar circumstances, always does, and the sudden application of cold to the skin, when warmed by exercise, checks the circulation, and causes illness. ”

“ I longed for a little trimming, a softer quality of flannel.
"'I am afraid they must hurt the people who get them,' I said one day, when Miss Marjorum exhibited her bale of flannel underwear.
"'They are delightfully warm, and friction promotes circulation and maintains the health of the skin,' she replied severely. ”

“ I wondered what in the world those boys wanted of red flannel when they came up and asked me if I had a piece. I thought they wanted it to bait frogs or something like that, and I hunted out an old shirt of Mr. Clover’s to give ’em. ”

“ Looks innocent, doesn't it? My 'tummy pad,' I call it. Just a protection against chills, eh? That's what they thought when they searched me. But inside the flannel there's a coil of silk cord long enough and strong enough to tie up a man's arms, and his legs too at need. It's my own notion; and since my little trip, I've added something more. Sewn up in the flannel there's enough put-you-to-by-by stuff to keep a man or two quiet for as long as necessary. If I'd had that, I shouldn't have had to risk knocking my guard on the head and choking the breath out of him. ”

“ A week is the limit to the time they should be worn before being changed, and thus an endeavour should be made to have a sufficient number of underclothes to allow of this necessary frequency of change. There is no special virtue in coloured flannel. One often hears red or blue flannel, especially when new, credited with surprising qualities; but it has a doubtful advantage in that it does not show dirt so soon as white or cream-coloured, is assuredly not warmer, and brightly dyed wools are often the cause of eruptions on the skin. ”

“ The flannel should be covered with wool and oil-silk, just as a poultice is covered. Fomentations are, in many cases, as efficacious as poultices, and they possess, besides, the advantage of being easier to make, and of costing practically nothing, since the flannels can be used repeatedly. For the very poor, the cost of linseed for poultices is often a serious item. There is no danger of scalding if the flannel is squeezed so dry that it cannot drip nor wet the palm of the hand. ”

“ Flannel night dresses are preferable for children to linen or cotton. Children have [710] less heat-producing powers, and are apt to throw off the bed-clothes. For them a night dress, made somewhat like a bathing costume, suits best, as it is then impossible that, though the bed-clothes are tossed off, the child can be entirely exposed. In old persons, and in those with strongly developed rheumatic tendencies, flannel is also the best material for night dresses ”

“ The better qualities of Flannelette are distinguished from the lower grades [36] by the former being more closely woven in the warp, and the raised nap is shorter in the better grades. Flannelettes are sometimes printed, in which case they would be more correctly described as "Printed Flannelettes," the ordinary Flannelette of commerce not being as a rule "printed." ”

“ From afar we descried its smoke, and presently in the doorway observed Cousin Egbert himself, who waved cheerfully at us. His appearance gave me a shock. Quite aware of his inclination to laxness, I was yet unprepared for his present state. Never, indeed, have I seen a man so badly turned out. Too evidently unshaven since his disappearance, he was gotten up in a faded flannel shirt, open at the neck and without the sign of cravat, a pair of overalls, also faded and quite wretchedly spotty, and boots of the most shocking description. ”

“ A considerable trade is done in plain cloths dyed, and also in woven coloured stripes and checks, but almost any heavy or coarse cotton cloth can be made into flannelette. It is now largely used by the poorer classes of the community, and the flimsier kinds have been a frequent source of accident by fire. It is, however, when used discreetly and in a fair quality, a cheap and useful article. A flannelette, patented under the title of “Non-flam,” has been made with fire-resisting properties, but its sale has been more in the better qualities than in the lower and more dangerous ones. ”

“ How's my father to get this money for Flannelly?"
"D——n Flannelly!" was Brady's easy solution of the family difficulties. "Let him take the house he built, and be d——d to him; and if we can't build a betther one for the masthur and Miss Feemy and you, without his help, may praties choke me!"
"By dad, if he'd take the house, and leave the ground, he's my welcome, and ceade mille faltha, Pat. But the land will stick to the house; and mark me, when ould Flannelly dies (an' the divil die along with him) , Mr. Keegan of Carrick will write himself, Hyacinth Keegan, Esquire, of Ballycloran." ”

“ Like the unceasing motion of a column of artillery in battle, like the roar and fury of the Carthaginian's elephant, so is the torrent of Flanbert's eloquence—majestic, grand, intense, with nobility, sensuous, but never sublime, never elevating, never delicate.
As an historian, Flanbert would have ranked high—at least in impartiality. Not once in the whole volume does he allow his prejudices, his opinions, his sentiments to crop out. ”

“ Well, my dear Peter, don't let that trouble you any more. Flannigan will not interfere. I am taking it for granted, in spite of the spies and secret agents with which you equip Flannigan, that he deals in no such rubbish. Miss Sarsfield-Mitcham has hypnotised you, and I venture to bet a whole sovereign that Flannigan doesn't know she is in England, and wouldn't care a rap if he did. A man who through his own genius has risen to such a place in the railway world as G. P. Flannigan is no fool. He'll not hinder you. Why, what are you doing? You are building up for him a great business. ”

“ And then, when the white steamer was hull down on the broad blue of the silken sea, he sought Flannigan and found him lolling in the sun at the bar-door; and Meg, with her handsome, impudent face and bold eyes, was beside him.
"Know any one who wants to take over my job, Flannigan?" said North, standing in the street with hands in pockets and hat pulled down over his brows. "I'm going back to the pearling with Bayne of the Catapult. He's always asking me." ”

“ Why shouldn't I say what I like? Over-caution is just what would ruin us."
"I believe you want it not to come off," said Flannigan.
"You believe nothing of the sort," said the other, speaking rapidly and loudly. "You know as well as I do that when I play for a stake I like to win it. But I won't have my words criticised and cut short by you or any other man; I have as much interest in our success as you have—more, I hope."
He was quite hot about it, and puffed furiously at his cigar for a few minutes. The eyes of the other ruffian wandered alternately from Dick Merton to myself. ”

“ It was an Angora cat, a real Angora cat. You've got to produce that cat before we are through with you."
"Projuce th' cat!" said Flannery angrily. "Th' cat is safe an' sound in th' back lot. I presint ye with th' lot. If 't is not enough fer ye, go awn an' do th' dirthy worrk ye have t' do awn me. I'll dig no more fer th' cat."
The inspector unlocked the door and entered the office. It was hot with the close heat of a room that has been locked up overnight. Just inside the door the inspector stopped and sniffed suspiciously. No express office should have smelled as that one smelled. ”

“ An inspector is a hard man to face, but a man in his best clothes has more of a show against him. Flannery came to the office the back way; there was a possibility of the inspector's being already at the front door. As he crossed the filled-in meadows he poked unhopefully at the soil here and there, but nothing came of it. But suddenly his eyes lighted on a figure that he knew, just turning out of the alley three buildings from the office. It was Timmy!
Flannery had no chance at all. He ran, but how can a man run in his best clothes across soft, new soil when he is getting a bit too stout? ”

“ Never, perhaps, in the history of the world had a man worked so hard to dig up a dead cat. Even in ancient Egypt, where the cat was a sacred animal, they did not dig them up when they had them planted. Quite the contrary: it was a crime to dig them up; and Flannery, as he dug, had a feeling that it would be almost a crime to dig up this one. Never, perhaps, did a man dig so hard to find a thing he really did not care to have. ”

“ He took note of the men at the table. Flanagan was there again: he was an American, a short, snub-nosed youth with a jolly face and a laughing mouth. He wore a Norfolk jacket of bold pattern, a blue stock round his neck, and a tweed cap of fantastic shape. At that time impressionism reigned in the Latin Quarter, but its victory over the older schools was still recent; and Carolus-Duran, Bouguereau, and their like were set up against Manet, Monet, and Degas. ”

“ He had this wax figure of himself made to sit at this desk, and there is a spring attachment [124] that works whenever anyone stands on that rug. The figure, you see, lifts its head once in twenty seconds, and that is all that Flannery does when he is here. The taxpayers have been kicking so hard about absentees that the boss and others have been stirring the office holders up and Flannery thinks it’s only right to make this much of a concession. Very few find out that it is not Flannery, except that he swears more. ”

“ Flanagan, without knowledge or technique, painted with the loose brush of a man who has spent a lifetime in the practice of the art.
"If one were forbidden to look at any picture for more than thirty seconds you'd be a great master, Flanagan," smiled Philip.
These young people were not in the habit of spoiling one another with excessive flattery.
"We haven't got time in America to spend more than thirty seconds in looking at any picture," laughed the other. ”

“ And look'd, and look'd, on the untouch'd meal
And the overtoppled chair.
We seem'd to stand for an endless while,
Though still no word was said,
Three men alive on Flannan Isle,
Who thought on three men dead. ”

“ His left hand locked into the collar of the ringmaster's coat, his arm straightened like the tautening chains of his own derrick crane, and, as the other came off his knees and upright from the yank, Flannagan's right swung a terrific full-arm smash that, landing a little above the jaw, plastered one side of that tonsorial work of art, the waxed and curled mustache, flat into Ferraringi's cheek. ”

“ So mebbe the Frinchmin is professor of fleas, as ye say."
"I should think a grown man would want to be professor of something bigger than that," said Mrs. Muldoon, "but there's no accountin' for tastes."
"If ye understood, mam," said Mike Flannery, "ye would not say that same, for to the flea professor th' flea is as big as a house. He studies him throo a telescope, Mrs. Muldoon, that magnifies th' flea a million times. Th' flea professor will take a dog with a flea on him, mam, and look at th' same with his telescope, and th' flea will be ten times th' size of th' dog." ”

“ He was for ever devising new schemes of petty persecution, until Martin's soul grew bitter, and he longed to retaliate. But Flannagan was larger and heavier than himself, and a direct assault could only end in defeat; so for a fortnight he stood the ragging without complaint, and nursed his grievance in silence. Then one morning he came late to breakfast to find powdered soap mingled with his food, pepper in his coffee, and Flannagan sniggering on an adjacent seat. He did nothing at the time, but that morning sought the advice of Joshua Billings. ”

“ His right hand gripped a mess-tin which he pushed towards the champagne bottle in a slow, guileless manner as if he was doing it knowingly.
Flanagan was there, stripped to the waist and rubbing his body with a towel. He had been out through the village and had just come back, sweating profusely. He had eaten at a café round the corner and made a study of "the movements of masticating jaws" as he expressed it.
"It's damned interesting to watch people eat," he said. ”

“ Flannagan was very dirty, and withal very tired, and when, finally, they gave him the "clear" and his flat and caboose and his staggering derrick rumbled sullenly down toward the roundhouse and shops, the sight of gilded cages, gaudily decorated cars, and converted Pullmans that were second-class-tourist equipment painted white, did not assuage his feelings; neither was there enchantment for him in the roars of multifarious beasts, nor in the hybrid smells that assailed his nostrils from the general direction of the menagerie. ”

“ Daisy had gone—had gone that night—where, he did not know, and told himself he did not care. He grew moody, sullen, uncompanionable. Big Cloud took sides—the women for Flannagan; the men for the wife. Flannagan hated the women, avoided the men—and went to the Blazing Star.
There was only one result—the inevitable one. Regan, kindly for all his gruffness, understanding in a way, stood between Flannagan and the super and warned Flannagan oftener than most men were warned on the Hill Division. ”