The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1889-11-29
HARM The GARTER DOES.
English Doctors Say Il Injuries Z
Circulation Of rhe Blood.

English Doctors Say It Injuries the
Circulation OF the Blood
A writer in the London Truth SAYS he
suspects there is no better way for doctors
to get their names well before the public
than by abusing the most time-honored
| garments Of their lady patients. Eve
! know how the stays have been pulled
about by the medical critics." he says,
and how they have held their own
| and kept their shape in spite Of all
| the edortso Of their opponents l now hear
| that English doctors at a recent con
! gress have been handling carriers roughly
! on the pretext that they lnjure the circula-
| ton Of the blood But hOw are stockings 10
be worn il carriers are to be discarded As
| our foremotbers for centuries were gar
tered, and only few complained of vari-
| cOse veins, it strikes me that the evil lies
| not SO much in the wearing Of the garter as
In the way in which it is worn. L may be
a loose tit (which does just as well 70 keep
| the stocking from falling or getting
| wrinkled at the ankles or it may be tight
! light, which, of course, is injurious.
! Il have been interviewing a couple Of
| weavers of surgical stockings for persons
| troubled with varicOs5 veins. Would it
| surprise you to hear that the greater num-
Der Of their customers never wore carriers
| since their childhood they being of the
| nOn-gentle sexl Perhaps this is because
sons take after their mothers, and inherit
| their acquired weaknesses in exaggerated
! forms. Nor is it persons vino walk the
| most that want these special stockings. The
demand for them is chiefly made by full
| fed men, VINO lead sedentary lives and
| drink more wine than is good for them. A
| wearer of the anti-varicoSe stocking feels
| worse after a series of dinner parties, when
| the tempting varieties Of the menu lead him
to indulge too freely in the pleasures of the
palate.
ut is rather odd that the crusade against
| the garter bas not been made at a ladies'
| congress. My notion was that it, belonged
70 the topics which should only be discussed
at Eleusis, until found that congress of
doctors took 1t up. / have been round TO
museums to ascertain to what remote an
| tiquity we owe the garter Chate!aiues, in
| the Gothic times, before knitting was in-
vented, used to wear in cold weather gar
| ters made of warm stutfs covered with silk
embroidery, and laced at the sides.
81 fancy that stockings were rarities
| when the Countess Of Salisbury dropped
| her garter, to the scandal of the ladies OF
| Queen Philippians court, and that the few
which were displayed there came from
| Flanders, and were lacey-looking articles.
! An antiquarian has been showing me an old
| Flemish garter in gotfered leather, with a
handsomely embossed silver clasp represent
ing st. Martin and the beggar What
that htgh-spirited and generous saint had to
do with carriers my friend is at a loss to
think. Carriers, at any rate, were not so
hidden as is generally supposed when
Edward III. instituted guard Of honor
for those of tho Countess of Salisbury.
They were shown by ladies who went out
riding to hawk. When the side-saddle later
came in it did not involve the use Of the
long riding habit, and so the leg-gear
| a hA nGal hn-gphaplY haeap1a f
moro costly and curious workmanship.
"Brantome casts side-lightS on the grand
and proper DANES who were aided by their
vaIets-de-chambre to dress for the hunting
field, and were particular in learning from
them how their clauses Shorts chauSettS
stockings and garuers impressed them A
garter was adorned with armorial bearings
or with fanciful conceits. They were oftea
richly jeweled and might have served as
arInlets for Knights who gloried in display
ing such tokens. at weddings, brides
carriers were cut up and the pieces given
10 the young men who attended.
They wore them IS DECORATIONS In
Italy and the South of Spain, whom stock
ings came in there, daggers were stuck by
the wearers thereof into their carriers in
sign that they wanted no order of chivalry
to defend them. A very beautiful English
lady whom | knew tried some years ago to
revive this fashion in Florence. Her hus-
| DdAl1 udn otSSl bcu AiSi anu sue udu TO 90
about with a kind of cdguLier SerUente. As
she spoke much of her dagger sometimes
allowed part of it to be seen, and was lovely
as she could be, she found lmiCators But
they were not Lucretias.
The garter, | find, is becoming more
than ever an object dc tuUe. When it is 50,
it is got up with exquisite taste There are
garter ecerins for dressing tables as there
bracelet ecerinS. Jewelry enters into the
arrangement of elastic band and quilted
silk. SO does skilled needework. [ am
told that the article de Paris which is TO
top the market at the opening of 1890 will
be the garter In the United States there
is movement in favor of ribbed socks for
ladies. Those who promote it must have
lovely skins [ do not see why the sock
should not dethrone the long stocking.
There IS really no indehcacy in goin z
without stockings as every one must have
observed who has watched the humors of
d French watering place where there are
extensive sands. Canvas buskins protected
the feet, but legs are bare and the skirts are
trundled up to the knees French seigneurs
who went to England to enjoy themselves
at the court of the merry monarch, ex-
tolled the beauty of the bare legs which
they saw at Tunhridge Wells, English
farmers and shopkeepers daughters then
preferred to go without stockings when
they could not get them of the finest
quality, and in their neatly made shoes and
short, tidy skirts, they presented an agree
able contrast to the French women who
wore clumsy hosiery and clumsier sabots
"Under Louis XIV. fine lords were as
handsomely gartered as court bellies, who,
however, did not show their carriers unless
when they made journeys on horseback in
| masculine habiliments. This mode of trav-
cling was not unusual, the roads being too
bad for carriages, aud the side-saddle being
fatiguing to the horse. | dare say the gar
ter will look up wherever there are lady
cyclists. 1t need not press against the
limb that it encircles. Why not wear
stockings wrinkled, like the mosquetare
gloves of Sarah BernhardL9 To do SO would
do away with the temptation to have tight
garters."
Caste.-Blg Calf (vainly)-"Get out of
my way or III step on you. YOU'RE no