Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1890-10-09
Evidences Exist Showing They We're
Worn in Prehistoric Times by
the Cave DweilerS.
Who Made Them by Sewing Together
Roughly Dressed Skins.
Famous Females of Royalty and
How They Covered Their
Dainty Hands.

WHICH Al INC ANtN VI n AFDnl'NtlCld III
Advertiser reminds us that there is moth
ing new under the sun, even in regard to a
subject so apparently trivial as gloves.
The carving of long glove has been found
IN hole where cavedwelers once live |.
just when these strange people existed
has not been decided, but it was thousands
and thousands of years ago. and the
soul ptured glove is of the same shape as
the many button ones worn by fashionable
ladies of the present The gloves Of the
anti-g glacial occupants of cave are sup
posed to have been made OF roughly-druss-
ed skin, sewn with needles of bone: but
they were worn Just the same, and the
general pattern remains unchanged
There is plenty Of other evidences that
gloves are of very remote origin, although
none that goes back so far. The Anglo
SaXons wore gloves in the seventh century,
but TIE men were the ones then to observe
the custom, the ladies covering their hands
with their sleeves. Earlier than this,
Norman officials and high personages of
that country covered their hands, and in
many places in the Bible the shoe is
used when scholars maintain it means
glove
PERQUIsITE OF THE CHURCH.
The glove trade is under great obliga-
tions to the church In the year 700 Char
lemagne granted to the abbot and monks
of Sithin an unlimited right of hunting for
making their gloves and giriles of
the skins of the deer they killed and
also for covers for their books But
gloves had a more near connection with the
church than the industry They had dis
tinetive employment in the rites and
services. They were worn by the priests
officiating. The laity were expected to
ecclesiastics alone might wear them, re-
versal of our modern fashions. The sym
boism of the church did not forget the glove
as gifted with hidden significance Bruno,
bishop of Segni, says that they are made.
linen to denote that the hands they cover
should be chaste, clean, and free from all
impurity." The gloves on the hands of
Boniface VIII. al the time of his int
ment were of white silk, beautifully
wrought with pearls Gloves are still
used by Roman Catholic bishops, and adj
vertised in the lists of clerical necessaries.
According to st. Charles Borromeo, a
bishops gloves should have golden
circle on the outside and this is seen on
the'plove of Bishop William of WyEeham,
preserved III New college, Oxford.
Gloves were, in 14l6, often set with pre-
cious stones, and sufficiently valuable to be
left as legacies. The jeweled gloves of st.
Martial we're said to have rebuked an act
of sacriege. The gloves of Bishop Grave
send, worked with gold and enamel, were
priced at e5 great sum i'll 1910. But
the sturdier Bishop Button wore thick yell
low gloves at 10d pair. However, that
love of luxury and of yestments which then,
as now. threatened TO sap "a certain division
of the church, led to the passing of sump-
tuory restrictions The clergy might
not wear gloves, red or green OF striped
neither ring, brooch, ornamental girdie,
nor gloves" Monks were not to wear
gloves or deerskins, but were to content
themselves with gloves of sheepskin. But
gloves were still made of costly materials
for bishops and the higher clergy, who
were then adorned with jewels, in spite of
sumptuary laws Bishop Riculfus, who
died in 9l3, LETT as an important legacy a
pair of gloves, and the earliest silk gloves
on record were fond on the hards of
Thomas Beckett.