Necktie

“ The top joint of the finger bent backwards with a greater suppleness than a manly person would perhaps admire. There was always an abundance of cuff and deep turn-down collar, of which the points overlapped the flap of a wide-cut waistcoat. In the matter of necktie, a soft silken material of faded hue rivalled the golden moustache in obtruding itself before the public gaze. ”

“ She sought out a black necktie and pinned it about her waist, and then, with a protesting frown, she deliberately tore a strip from the edge of one of the fine hem-stitched handkerchiefs, and folded it in about her neck in a turn-over collar. ”

“ I am not sure that Policeman Duffer would have recognized him. A collar and a necktie make a great difference in some people's personal appearance. Dirk wondered a little as to where the box of paper collars came from. The necktie he had just found lying in the bottom of the box. It was the mate of the one young Ried wore, but that told nothing, for both were simple and plain, and could be bought by the dozens in any furnishing store. ”

“ It is usual for a person addressing another to take note of his necktie, and probably of his hat, if of nothing else, and thus it is often useful to carry a [pg 64] necktie and a cap of totally different hue from that which you are wearing, ready to change immediately in order to escape recognition a few minutes later.
This illustration shows how the writer was able to disguise himself at very short notice when he observed that he was recognised on a railway station. The first sketch shows him as he entered a waiting-room shortly after his suspicions were aroused. ”

“ Why not let each one give ten cents for . going to the party?" asked Winny Curtis, in a tone that was very nearly a squeak, so shrill and peculiar was his voice.
"That's the fun of it," replied Aggie, triumphantly. "After we girls have made the neckties and aprons, mother will wrap each one in paper, so that no one can tell which is which. Then when a boy buys one of the packages, he sees what color of necktie he has got, and he hunts for the girl that has an apron like it. He must go in to supper with that girl, and walk home with her after the party is over." ”

“ He always came to dancing school in a different necktie; to let us know how many he had, I suppose. Didn't you notice his necktie?”
“It was pretty large, I thought,” said Herbert, smiling.
“Yes, he's fond of wearing large ones.”
“I am afraid you are talking uncharitably, Julia,” said her mother, mildly. “Girls, you know, are sometimes fond of dress.” ”

“ The constant state of the beard explains at once why the necktie, always crumpled and rolled by the gestures of a disquiet head, has its own beard, infinitely softer than that of the good old man, and formed of threads scratched from its unfortunate tissue. ”

“ Aggie had a large supply of freckles, as even a very near-sighted person could see. "We are going to have just as many boys as girls, and no one is obliged to come. But if any boy is willing to pay ten cents' towards helping Aunt Betsey, he buys a necktie, and the girls each buy an apron. ”

“ Then will come a stiff uncomfortable yoke for his neck, which he will call a collar, around which he will wind what he will call a necktie, the only useful purpose of which will be its value as a danger [69] signal to the rest of mankind, for it will be through the medium of this addition to the human dress that character will manifest itself, man being prone unconsciously to show his strength or weaknesses in the manner of his personal adornment. ”

“ Laces, gauzes, mulls, chiffons, net, and gossamer throw the same beautiful glamour over the face and they are fit and charming accompaniments of gray hair, which is a wonderful softener of defective complexions and hard facial lines.
Too much cannot be written upon the proper arrangement in the neck-gear of the aged. The disfiguring wrinkles that make many necks unsightly may be kept in obeyance by massaging. No matter what the fashion in neck-gear, the aged must modify it to suit their needs. An old lady with a thin, pipe-stem neck should adopt a full ruche and fluffy, soft collar-bands. ”

“ The headsman handled it with the caressing hand of an artist, poised it lightly in the air, and brought it down with a swish upon my niece's swanlike neck. I had a swanlike neck when younger.
"Huzza!" cried the hireling crowd. But they had shouted too soon. As the keen edge neared her golden ringlets, the ax-head left the handle and becoming a garland of flowers encircled her neck in a really effective manner. I could not but admire the esthetic value of the colors against her fair skin. Old men are somewhat forgetful, and I do not distinctly recall whether I have mentioned my niece's beauty. ”

“ Another way of making the neck look trim with a low neck dress is to wear an inch wide piece of black velvet around the neck. Make the ribbon to fit the neck and fasten it with snaps in the back or with small gold pins.
Coats of soft velour made with long shawl collar or revers and finished with a narrow belt are usually becoming to the mature woman. The older woman will do well to avoid the extreme fads of fashion, for to be really becoming, her clothes must have a certain dignity. ”

“ The necks are slender and long, being about equal to the body in height. They are generally narrowest in the middle, expanding trumpet-like toward the mouth, and widening more or less abruptly toward the shoulder below. In a few cases a ridge or collar encircles the base of the neck. The exterior surface is generally quite smooth, but never polished, although a polishing implement seems to have been used.
503 The largest is 9 inches in height and 7 inches in diameter. No. 65501 has a very tasteful incised design, encircling the shoulder as shown in Fig. 189. Diameter 61⁄2 inches. ”

“ All extremities—toes, fingers, nose, and ears—are especially apt to get frost-bitten, but marching against a cold wind also produces a peculiarly uncomfortable sensation about the neck, and I can not help thinking that there is something wrong about our fashion of cropping our boys like criminals. A good head of hair may be something more than an ornamental appendage, and Nature seems to have taken especial care to protect the nape of the neck in a great number of different animals. ”

“ The muscles of the neck should not be compressed. If the muscles of the neck and larynx are compressed by a high cravat, or other close dressing, not only will the free and energetic movements of these parts be impeded, but the tones will be feeble and ineffective. Therefore the dress of the neck, particularly of public speakers and singers, should be loose and thin. For a warm dress upon the neck, when the vocal organs are in action, will induce too great a flow of blood to these parts, which will be attended by subsequent debility. ”

“ We must see for the first time the strangely small head set on a neck not only longer but thicker than itself, as the face of a gargoyle is thrust out upon a gutter-spout, the one disproportionate crest of hair running along the ridge of that heavy neck like a beard in the wrong place ”

“ A person having a long neck has the neck of the bonnet descending, the neck of the dress rising, [p187] and filling more or less of the intermediate space. One having a short neck has the whole bonnet short and close in the perpendicular direction, and the neck of the dress neither high nor wide.
Persons with narrow shoulders have the shoulders or epaulets of the dress formed on the outer edge of the natural shoulder, very full, and both the bosom and back of the dress running in oblique folds, from the point of the shoulder to the middle of the bust. ”

“ When the necks are thoroughly cured in the sun, turn them right-side-out again and place them on your children's shoulders. Then they will find it does not hurt them to swallow.'
"I thanked the great Doctor and returned home, where I did as he had told me. For the last three days the necks of not only my children but of my wife and myself, as well, have been hanging on the bushes to be cured; so we could not possibly have eaten your plum-pudding. Indeed, it was only an hour ago when I finished putting the neck on the last of my children, and at that moment your soldiers came and arrested me." ”

“ No end of possibilities lie in the neck—even the "legitimate." You could run in a forty-minute sketch, wherein two long-separated but faithful lovers should fall against each other and wind their necks about together like a caduceus, or barley-sugar—or anything. Also the camel-goose might fling his neck about the villain, and strangle him. But perhaps, after all, variety business would suit best. Pontius Pilate in a kilt and philibeg would bring down the house with a Highland fling or gillie callum. And Atkinson in a long-stride table chair and banjo act would be comforting to the perceptions. ”

“ Ah, there is Stella Plympton coming to meet us. She has immense charm, and look at the way her head is set on her shoulders. Really, to have a neck is the only thing that matters. A girl with a neck has only to say ‘Good-morning’ for every one to exclaim, ‘How brilliant!’ Whereas people like me, with no neck, have to talk from morning till night at the tops of our voices, and wear ridiculous hats, or else every one says, ‘Poor dear, how much she has aged, and how very dull and heavy she is.’ Flints, I have immense trials. ”

“ This practice of introducing the neck-wire, after the neck is stuffed, was first adopted at the Jardin des Plantes at Paris, and is now invariably adopted in that establishment in preference to introducing it before the neck is stuffed. The neck of a swan or other long-necked and large birds, are even done so. It is unquestionably the best plan which has hitherto been discovered, as it preserves the cylindrical shape of the neck. ”

“ When a camel-goose lunches off a box of dominoes, or a sack of nails, or a basketful of broken bottles, there is quite as much credit in the feat due to the neck as to the stomach; with anybody else all the difficulties of that lunch would begin with the neck—even a thicker neck. ”

“ Care should be taken to get the gorge the right size of neck, as it is a very unsightly fault, and a tedious alteration when it is too large. The collar is generally fastened at the neck with hooks and eyes, and sometimes a button and notched hole is put in the end, as illustrated on the midshipman's diagram 23. ”

“ In this case the neck, which is high and narrow, has three prominences near the top; one at the front represents the bill of the bird, and others at the sides are meant for eyes. A handle has connected the head with the middle of the back. ”

“ The attitude of the head and neck contributes more than all the other parts of the body to give him a noble appearance; the superior [116] part of the neck, on which the mane grows, should raise itself in a straight line from the withers, and, in approaching the head, form a curve somewhat resembling the neck of a swan. The inferior part ought not to have any curve, its direction should be a direct line from the chest to the nether jaw, and a little bent forwards ”

“ Regionally considered, the neck is second only to the face in furnishing the greatest number of tics. Convulsive movements of the neck muscles produce displacement of the head in all sorts of ways and directions, giving rise to clonic tics of affirmation, negation, and salutation, and to nodding tics, as well as to an important group of tonic tics which find expression in differing forms of torticollis. The latter are so distinctive in symptomatology and evolution, and have been the centre round which so much discussion has raged, that a chapter must be set apart for their special study. ”

“ Wry-necks owe their name to the curious property they possess of being able to twist their necks in such a manner as to turn the head in all directions. They repeat this movement every instant, especially when surprised or angry. ”

“ Aside from the creased neck, mules' necks are nearly all alike in shape, They indeed vary as little in neck as they do in feet; and what I say on the collar will apply to them all, The teamster has always the means in his own hands of remedying a bad fitting collar. ”

“ When the body is half made you may run the neck-wire through it lengthwise, letting it come out above the centre of the larger end, because the neck is but a continuation of the backbone, which lies at the top of the body. When the wire is inserted, the upper side of the body—the back—must be pinched together and made more narrow than the breast, which is round and full. ”

“ In animals, because of the absence or slight development of the clavicles, the neck is generally too much confounded with the region of the shoulders to make it legitimate to separate it from that region in too marked a fashion. ”

“ Bichat observed that the length of the neck exercises an influence over the mental activity of the individual. Persons with short necks have a better sustained power of work than those who have long necks, or, in other words, other things being equal, the brain, which is superimposed on a short neck, has an advantage over the brain fed by a long carotid artery. ”

“ The head unquestionably is similar to that of a miniature horse in general outline. The neck, however, is not a neck at all. Fishes have no necks and hippocampus is no exception. What looks like a neck is the upper part of its abdomen, considerably contracted. ”

“ It is worthy of remark, that the distortion of the neck is often com­plicated, with roundness of the shoulders, in consequence of the violent contraction of the pectoral muscles, which are not properly counter­balanced by the muscles of the back. ”

“ When he had been jumped at from behind, had been shaken, and had had his ears boxed so that they burned and hurt even after he was put to bed, he learned that the nettles he had cut down were not nettles at all, but were called Coal-yusses, and were very precious, and that lie was a very naughty little boy. ”