The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-01-21
"TIPPITS AND MITTNS."
An Interesting Question Raised by
 Charles Battell Loomis

Charles Battell Loomis
 In letter to the Sun Charles Battell
 Loomis salutes the "tippet, dear old
 wordw and vows that it is years since ! he has seen it used" It must be owned
 that the country is progressively urban,
 yet we hope that tipepts are not obso-
 lete Even if they are the word is not. That hangs upon no rusty nail in the
 wardrobe of memory, by the side of
 red-topped boots with copper toes, high
 stocks and dckeys, mems shaWls, da-
 guerrotypes and hoop skirts and iva terfalls." The old spelling was "tippit"
 and this we choose to employ because 1t faithfully represents the pronouncia
 tion that was common in the consul ship of Piscnus. A vividhued, some- times many -colored scarf often of inn moderate length, capable of being wound around and around the youthful neck or over the head and ears and neck-that was a tippit. There were long, medium and short tippits, tippits in which you were swa thed like a num- my, and mere pretences of tippits, but all rested upon the theory that the cold was cruel and that a healthy boy ex- ercising himself into perspiration needed to be protected as to his neck from the chill air.
 In American plays of rural life there is always snowstorm. The scoundrel of a mortgagee will not foreclose un- less the almanac says About this time look out for snow" and there must be the sound of sleighbells although they never get the big old-fashioned ones on the stage and boys and men must come into the sittin room and undo their tippits. Then any ancient man in the audience who was raised in the North and the snow forgets the villain and the heroine. He feels the tippit around his neck. The flying frosty ends of it tickle his cheeks. The wooden mitt'ns, red or blue, are on his numb fingers. His clipper" with it's worn bright, springing runners is behind him. Down the hill comes the crowd, side saddle. belly-bunt. The "traverses'' or double runners" are rushing down with tre- mendous speed. The sharp air shakes with the yelling. The stars have their peculiar winter wink. Are the people who are "out sleighin'' and have to go up the hill, insured?
 Or the ancient man with his tippit and his mitt'ns is on the ice. On his feet are skates which screw into the heels and are fastened by a system of straps that will absolutely paralyze the circulation by-and-by. There is a loud boom and crack every now and then. Over on the other side of the pond fire is sputtering and cracking. Every boy with tippit is toy for every bigger boy with a tippit and is pulled and made to sprawl by means of 1, that inevitable and inconvenient neck 1 lace. The old retired sailor fishing through the ice for pickerel over there | IS said to have been a pirate and un- l doubtedly wears earrings. Fortune. l saeVo laeta negotio, comes and goes. | but nothing can change the happiness | of having known real sailor who wore | real earrings just as they do in the l books. An irascible tar, with a gift of l and a permanent aversion to | skaters. He will thump all the boys whom he catches too near his preserve md every one will wear a tippit. The l smaller the boy the larger the tippit.
 Or it is melting a little and there is snow -balling match, the stipulation