The herald., 1897-12-01
POOR woMAr,s rroxr1rs
Her Ready Made Ascots Are Sorrow
to Her Masculine Friends

The necktie of the average woman Is
likely to distress her male friends under
all circumstances, though the reign OF
the shirt waist has accustomed men to
its vagaries. There is in particular one
fashion which will be long in getting a
word of commendation from any man.
That is the wearing of the large, fat,
ready-made plastron neckties which
long time ago went out of fashion for
men.
when they were worn several years
ago." said q man who feels deeply on
the subject, 'their edges never showed
under waistcoat and they were partly
concealed. But a woman with one of
these scarfs on, with nothing to cover 1t
up, while it flaps in the breeze as she
walks, Is sight to move man to tears.
The fashion has been q godsend to the
haberdashers, who as soon as the women
began to wear these things had only to
unpack the old stock that filled their
shelves and sell 1t to the women. The
bought the ties with avidity, and the re-
suit was the painful sight of women
wearing old-fashiohed scarfs intended
to be partly covered under a waistcoat.
There were grounds for hoping that they
would disappear from view when the
winter months came. But the continu-
ance Of the shirt waist in permanent
winter form will make the Tapping tie
reality for several months to come, and
the final removal may not come for a
long time yet. Just think of having 1t
continue all next summer! The only
mitigation Of the present situation Is the
fact that in winter women wear jackets
over their cloth shirt waists, and that
improves the look Of the ties as long as
the women are out of doors. But inside
the house the old neckties still cover
two-thirds Of their bodies and flap back
and forth as they walk
There are women who can tie a scarf
as we'll as man, but there are not many
of them. In most cases they wear their
ties too long. Their necks are smaller
than mems, but, nevertheless, they buy
mems sizes in neckties, which always
results in painful superfiuity Of scarf.
The readymade ties which they wore
last summer, SO much to the distress Of
the men who saw them. got their first
voguew ith women because they were al
ready tied.
Il think that all women would better
get ready-made ties," said an uptown
haberdasher, because there are too few
of them who can arrange tie properly,
although ! will admit that there are a
few. Anybody who doubts this ought
to look at the picture of Maude Adams
taken in riding habit and observe the
way her fiat scarf is tied. John Drew
could not do better for himself Ready
made ties must, of course, be Stunned by
all men who make any pretence to being
well dressed. but they are the best thing
for the women They cannot be made
to understand how much depends on the
attention to small details, and why tie
looks better when 1t is a quarter Of an
inch shorter Is something they can never
appreciate. The stiffness and necessary
primness of a we'll tied scarf is another
thing which never comes into their
minds as Of any particular Importance
They will labor over a ribbon bow and
tie 1t half a dozen times If that be neces-
sary to make it meet their ideas. But
they never take so much time when it is
a mans tie, because they do not appre-