The Forest Republican. [volume] (Tionesta, Pa.) 1869-1952, 1886-08-04
ROMANCE OF THE GLOVE.
THE PART TT HAS PLAYED IN THE
WORLDS HISTORY.
Worn 100, 1000 Years Ago and Up TO
the Elbow--Ancient Customs Rel.
attve TO Its Use,

The glove as portion Of our costume
IS so ancient that its inventor is not now
known, but it seems quite certain from
the records that gloves came into use as
soon as shoes. In those rude and primi-
tive times called prehistoric, when lovers
did their wooing with a club, and
young gentleman wanting n wife went
out and knocked one down, he put on
his gloves first. That is what some emil
nent scientists think. They say the cave
men wore gloves, and the cave men are
supposed to have lived some 100, 600
years ago. Professor Dawkins, in his
work entitled "Early Man in Britain, ("
says the cave men and women wore
gloves, not only of ordinary size, but
reaching even to the elbows, thus
anticipating by untold ages the fashion
able multi-button gloves of our era. The
belle of the ballroom in twenty -buttoned
kids is hardly aware that she is only
copying after some prehistoric maid or
matron who was wooed and won ages
and ages ago, but our learned geologists
tell us such is the fact.
To come to later times, concerning
which all is not guess work, there seems
to have been no time whek ,aloves were
not worn. They are mentioned in the
Bible, and in the oldest literature that
has come down to b6s. The were first
used as protection from the cold. and
were thought to be mark of effemi-
macy. Some of the early Christian fathers
inveighed strongly against people in per-
feet health clothing their hands in soft
coverings, but it availed nothing against
fashion. But in time the bishops and
other clergy got to wearing gloves them
selves, and the monks were among the
earliest glove makers In Europe. The
glove also bore part in regal and mar
tial ceremonies. At the coronation of
the kings of France the newly crowned
monarch received from the hands of the
officiating bishops pair of gloves, pre-
viously blessed by the Church In Ing
land new sovereign receives a right
hand glove, and with it the scepter of
the kingdom.
Gloves were at one time a favorite
form of New Years gift and wedding
gift, and to make the present more valu
able money was sometimes given in the
glove. Sir Thomas More, when Lord
High Chancellor of England, was pre-
sented with pair, filed with gold coin,
favor he had decided. The gloves he
accepted, but "their lining you will be
pleased to otherwise bestow," he wrote
to the giyer.' The English judges were
not allowed to wear gloves on the bench,
but there is probably no custom in Eng
land more widely known than that Of
the presentation of a white pair of gloves
to judge upon the occasion of maiden
assize, as it is called; that is a holding
of court where no criminal has been con-
demned to death. Gloves were also
given by a lover to his betrothed as a
symbolical form of binding the bargain,
and at weddings lavish gifts of gloves
were made to clergyman and guests, but
this custom has long been abandoned
But it is still maintained at funerals, and
on important occasions the undertaker's
bill for gloves is considerable item,
particularly when the Government has
to pay. Kings and mobiles were buried
with their gloves on in the old times,
and remnant of the custom may still be
observed among us. when cavalry SOL
dier is buried. His gloves, with his
sword and hat, are placed upon the
coffin.
The use of the glove as a symbol of
defiance, or challenge to combat comes
to us from immemorial times and though
in this workaday modern world, the Gus
tom is practically unknown, yet it is as
sociated with so much that is full of ro-
mantle interest that it still gives pic
turesque and lively simile to the language
of antagonism. Particularly is it in use
TO express challenges bv party orators,
and the Congressional arena is frequent
witness of a gantlet being cast down or
picked up, metaphorically, by some excl
ted partisan. But these worthy legisla-
tors of ours, when they use the language
of chivalry, have no idea of adventuring
the justice of their cause or their integ-
rity of purpose on an appeal to arms.
They prove their knightly truth and
honor by other modes not quite so dan
gerous.
One of the most amusing scenes in
Henry V. turns upon the exchange of
gloves as a challenge between the king,
incognito, and Williams, one of his brave
common soldiers. The King afterward
gives the glove he received from Williams
TO Fluellen, the choleric Welch captain,
and when Williams meets him with the
glove in his cap he gives him, with right
good will, a box on the ears. The King
comes up, the quarrel is explained and
adjusted, and Williams is presented with
a glove full of crowns. The glove was
sometimes also worn in the cap as me-
mortal of love or friendship, and it was
a knightly practice to carry glove in
the helmet as mark of devotion to some
fair laSssss An old chronioler relates that
at the battle of Agincourt the knights
bore among their head gear ''the gloves
of their darlings. - Chicago Herald.
There are two markets. nnnnsite each