Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1890-10-09
GLOVES In THE DAYS OF OLD.
Evidences Exist Showing They We're
u o}n in Prehistoric Times by
the Cave Dwellers,
Who Made Them by Sewing Together
Roughly Dressed Skins.
Famous Females of Royalty and
How They Covered Their
Dainty Hands.

How They Covered Their
Dainty Hands.
A writer in the New York Commercial
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 a long glove mas been found
IN hole where cave-dwellers once lived.
Just when these strange people existed
has not been decided, but it was thousands
and thousands of years ago, and the
sculptured glove is of the same shape as
the many button ones worn by fashionable
ladies of the present. The gloves of the
antl-glacial occupants of a 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 50 far. The Anglo
Sax0ns wore gloves in the seventh century,
but tie men were the ones then to observe
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.
Tie 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 girdles of
the skins of the deer they killed and
also for covers for their books. But
gloves hada more near connection with the
church than the industry. They had dis
tinctlve employment in the rites and
services. They were worn by the priests
officiating. The laity were expected to
take off their gloves in church, while
ecclesiastics alone might wear them, re-
versal of our modern fashions. The SYM
bolism of the church did not forget the glove
as gifted with hidden significance. Bruno,
bishop ofSegni, 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 inte
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 a golden
circle on the outside, and this is seen on
the glove of Bishop William of Wykeham,
preserved in New college, Oxford.
Gloves were, in 1416, often set with pre-
ci0us stones. and sufficiently valuable to be
lett as legacies. The jeweled gloves of St.
Martial were said to have rebuked an act
Of sacriIege. The gloves of Bishop Grave
send, worked with gold and enamel, were
priced at G5. great sum in 1910. But
the sturdier Bishop Button wore thick yell
low gloves at 10d pair However that
love of luxury and Of vestments which then,
as now, threatened to sap certain division
Of the church. led to the passing of sump-
tn ry restrictions. The clergy might
not wear gloves, red or green o. 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 aud the higher clergy. who
we're then adorned with jewels, in spite of
sumptuary laws. Bishop Riculfus, who
died in 913, lett as an important legacy a
pair of gloves, and the earliest silk gloves
on record were fond ON the hands of
Thomas a Beckett
SIGN OF AUTHORITY.
Gloves have ever been an accessory to
the dress of royalty. They have place in
the regalia. and we read Of purple gloves
omamented with pearls and precious
stones, which were deemed ensi gns of i'm
perial dignities They were so intimately
connected with kingIy power that mon
arches were invested with authority by
the delivery of a glove. The knight
glove or gauntlet has more that Is roman
tic and symbolical attached than all others.
The word comes from the early French
word grant" meaning the hand. AS Il
distinctive article of defensive dress, the
gauntlet did not come into use until the
thirteenth century. In the time of Edward
l.. leather glove, covered with mail, wa
introduced, and during the reign of Ed
ward III spikes of steel were fixed to the
knuckIes. The gauntlet of Edward, the
Black prince, was a formidable affair, with
its steel goads on the back of the hand.
the very appearance being calculated to
inspire terror The buff glove of Crom
wells troopers were protected at the wrist
bv metal scalework, well arranged to
break sword blow. Perfumed gloves
were brought from Italy by Edward We're,
earl of Oxford. after his exile, and his
present to Queen Elizabeth, of a pair with
embroidered roses is mentioned in history.
But the refinement of perfumed gloves had
been known for three centuries In France
before the days of the Virgin Queen, and
in Spain the gloves were famous for the
scent impaired to them long before her
day. The luxurious court of Charles II.
used perfumed gloves, and those trimmed
and laced as fine as Neil's'' were mention
ed in a comedy. Louis XIV, also issued
letters patent of his ''marchands maitres
gautiers perfeumeurs In Venice, where
the love of dress was conspicuous, per-
fumed gloves were introduced by dogess
as early 1911.
TO WHITEN MY LADY S HANDS.
Gloves of chicken skin were in vogue In
the early part Of the seventeenth century.
These were used at night to give the hands
whiteness and delicacy. Thin and delicate
gloves were first made at Limerick. They
were so thin they could be put in walnut
shell. Cough says that gloves were not
worn by all women before the reformation.
But this is not absolutely correct. for
Chaucer speaks in his translation OF the
s'Romaunt of the Rose" of idleness:
And for to steep her hands fayre,
Of gloves white she had pair.
II r. n q