Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1886-06-06
POCKETS.
Thar Potent influence In the Civilization
OF Man and Their Failure TO Interest
Lovely Woman.

OF Man ana Lhe1r Ea1luro To Interest
Lovely Woman.
ReAO6OlA Sunday Herald.
The origin of portable property has been
connected by 3 daring philosopher with
the origin of pockets ana the decline oi
primitive religion. The argument, though
ialiaCiouS, is sufficiently cleag, and admits
of being stated briefly.
Before clothes we're in common wear how
did man assert and maintain mis- right IN
srroE-heads, flint knives, shells, bone hsh-
hooks and the other objects which, If
clothed: be would have earned in his peck.
ets2 New Zsslsnd and ;hs South Seas
generally furnish the answer. The owner,
If no had the mana. or spiritual power,
tabued bis property. He let it be known
that curse would fall on any one who
meddled with il. This plan worked very
veil, and still works, in New Zsa-
land, where q slave native in the King 8
country would die ct once hster than
touch any article belonging to q Ran
gatira, or gentleman, and therefore
tsbued. Probably this device, which among
the Hebrews Of Lsviticus took the shape o..
the penalties and disabilities of "unclesn
persons, acted eficscioualy enough while
men we're under the stress OF early super
s,itioDs, and were more or less naked. But
faith went out and clothes came In. With
clothes csnO pockets. With pockets came
tia idea OF porlsbls property aud tho pun
ishment otthsft. -.
So much for the theory which is backed
/ OF the fact that woman, the conservative
| element in society, has never taken kindly
70 pockets, and az present does not, prac-
ticslly speaking, use pockets st all Hence
ladies' never cease 10 lament the card cases,
purses and other articles Of portable proper
| ", which they carry IN their hands after the
primitive fashion, and lay down and forget
and lose. All this comes of the couseIV-
atism of woman, VINO has not reached the
social stage 10 which pockets are evolved
and appreciated.
A little reflection will now show that
the hypothesis, tempting as it is, must be
amended. There Il an intermediate stage
between the prinIiiys tsbu aud the purely
recent and modern pocket. Pockets are the
long result of time Any scholar who tries
to think OF the Greek for pocke: will at
once see that the Greeks had not acquired
this apparently simple resource OF civil
izsiion. II was not that they had nothing
worth steslins, still less that they were 100
honest to steal. The Latin word psra
borrowed directly from the Greek, is as
near toe pocket IS the classical races
could attain to; and it Is obvious that the
Romans had not even the pers uii
they copied it from Greece. Now,
the pera, which is often mentioned by
Homer, was no proper pocket, bat q lesth-
esu strip or bag hung from the shoulder. In
such a scrip did O1>sssus store his broken
meat when he was disguised SIS beggsc.
The scrips Of the disciples are mentioned,
as every one remembers Ia the
New Testament. The word is com.
mon to Icelsudc, Swedish and
Low German. Here then, u the in'ezme-
diste stage between poCkella-s aud modern
mankind. The GreeE, like our Teutonic
ancestors had to carry VALE, or make
what uss he nigh; of the fold OF the Chiffon
which fell over the girdIe. Hsrodo;as
speaks of the fold, or Soipos, in this sense;
aud Thsoeritus, when he Alexaud;lau puS.
lie would nof buy his poems, complained
that they held their hands tight under
their kolpoi, where, NJ doabs, they ratified
their drschmas 10 yGlglr sad irritating
manner.
To such resorts wss pocketle's man com.
oslled, aud be vas obliged 10 make sepa'
rate shsaths or cases for sriciea OF com
moa use. He had a case hung bg 5sit
tor his pens. kai:a and iuS.horn. de did
without pocket hSnikerchiet1 he carried
q Dag At mis- side with his money in it, like
Isaac the Jew of York, whose bag, it will De
remembered, was sustehed away OF Prince
John. SO long yes man pocketless that
in Fsirhol,'s GLOSSARY 81 English Cos
tume" the word pocket does not oeeGE at
ell, though We hnd poke and pouch.
As soon as We Eest the original toEm OF
the modern coat, We G2i CoGr!es II. wsar-
ing a coat with pockets ia the asp5. froE2
that aous the pocket wss firmly establish
ed institution, Developing, IN special coId''
tons, the obsolete FOB.
We have now seen man, IN the TasGloSl'
cal stsye. 60 Comte would cay. using the
,sbn. or spiritual c8rse; then, in a meta
physical age and sm9og mstsPhfslesI
race. developing the sePI7A5is poaGo; aaa
finally, Is positive sc;encs da"ned uoder
Bacon and az the Royal Society Sss found
ed under Charles II, evolving the modern
pocket SaDguine friends OF progress
cherish the hope that even woman "ili n
nally reach the pocket-~esriug level OF cui-
tuSs, and cease to streE her path through
Rfa With card cases, purses, and similar ar
ticlss Of female furniture.