Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1915-07-02
E1OUR years ago a man said to me, do
u Won wear q hnck cnllnr hntton2n

TIOUR years ago man said to me, do
i you wear back collar button"
Certainly" said /, when I wear collar"
Then you're an idiot" he replied. "You
don't need to. It's only nuisance Your col
lar viii stay put just as well without It,"
OF course I didn't believe him. You don't
believe mo now when 1 tell you he right.
Bert Lesion Taylor, in his column in the
Chicago Tribune, has recently been crusading
against the back collar button, and people
didn't believe b. L. 'r. No doubt benighted
world will go right on wearing back collar
buttons in spite of all Bert and 1 can say
about IT. Still, nobody who has become
omancipated from this masculine curse can
rest happy till he has at least tried to eman-
cipate his fellow-maes.
Four years ago, when the man first told
me that the back collar button was useless,
to bo answered with a plying smile, 1 had
a particularly annoying time pulling my tie
through my collar the next morning. in order
to get the knot tightly into place. AS a matter
of fact, first I tore the button hole of the
collar, and then the tie itself gave way, with
a protesting rip. 1 tore the offending collar
from my neck, took up a fresh one, put in
another tie, and-rehected. Why not give the
thing trial? 1 could slip the collar button
wouldn't stay down. could resort again to
the ancient method OF course, IL wouldn't
stay down. was quite sure of that But at
least could get my tie tied before breakfast
An Unpleasant Sense of Insecurity
1 put the collar on without the back collar
button and enjoyed the delicious sensation of
feeling the tie slip in the collar with compara-
tive ease. Then I started out for the day At
first had a vague, unpleasant sense OF in
security. My collar was always on the point
OF slipping up in the back, especially when
stopped forward Now and again, would in
sert my finger warily to feel If the shirt band
was still In its rightful place. 1t always was.
After time the sense of insecurity began to
wear off. When you are waiting for some-
thing dreadful to happen to you, and 1t
doesn't happen, sooner or later you are bound
to assume normal relations with life again
and so about your business BY lunch time
I had fully decided my collar wasn't going to
ride mp under my ears. BY dinner time I
had forgotten all about 1t.
have never worn a back collar button
from that Cay to this, except with a standing
collar, and then only to hold my necktie in
place.
The advantages are multitudinous. For one
under the bureau. q am aware that most
peop-e don't believe that collar buttons Ioll
under bureaus except in comic papers, but
mine always did). In the second place. your
ncclktie slips more easily, In the third place,
your collar no longer gets that abominable
little black spot on It where the back button
makes bulge when all the rest of It may be
comparatively clean. II you don't live In Chi
cago, Indianapolis, Pittsburgh or Altoona In
the fourth place-and this is perhaps the most
important-you are rid OF at least one piece
OF harness, you have by so much simplihed
the process of dressing and undressing, in
which process so much OF our lives are
wasted. Half an hour a day, at the very
least, Sh hours a week, Is hours a month,
$50 hours year-uselessly given over to put
ting on and taking off silly clothesl It is
something to be rid OF even So small an item
as the back collar buttonl
Wall Street as a Collar Button
fancy there are a good many back collar
buttons in all departments OF our life which
we would find on tral-much TO our surprise
could be given up, and the world would wag
on Just as we'll There are those who go SO
far as to class the Stock Exchange as fnan-
eial back collar button. II Wall street were
wiped off the map. they say. we would feel
mighty uncomfortable for time. as II our
collar were going to do something disas-
trous-and then we would gradually realize
that we were getting on as usual, ana forget
all about it. But this is a matter concerning
which l know very little. Once / made a
trip to Wall street to interview the late ].
=. Morgan. and became remotely acquainted
with his ofice "boys"; and once made a
trip there to see the late +. Hopkinson smith,
who had an office near the East River, which
was full Of pictures OF lighthouses. pots OF
blooming geraniums, and Mr. Smiths genial
ity 50 don't know much about wall street
still, ! know what 1 Ike
have often speeulated on what would be-
come Of the social back coliAr button & Mrs.