The Greenville times. [volume] (Greenville, Miss.) 1868-1917, 1891-05-16
KID GLOVES.
TCOurier-JouFnall


Much more than half the kid so
called. is lamb or rat skin. Doe, buck
and dog skins were in life sheep or
calf. Genuine kid comes from SPAN,
Mexico, South America and Italy.
The very best, though, is French, for
there the thrifty peasant takes no
chances on scar or spot or blemish.
lie puts master kid in q coop as soon
as he is born, keeps him clean, feeds
him fat, and when his short life ends
gets about twice as much for the skin
as it would otherwise fetch. In tan
ming the hair is taken off with lime,
then the skin pelted-that is soaked
in clear running water until it is a
sheet of soft, white membrane thin
and fine as silk. Next it goes into a
mixture of salt and alum, which in
some way combines with it and effect
ually tans it. Then it is dried, curried,
rubbed over blunt knife edge, and
finally softened by beating in a bath
OF eggs and fine flour. After that the
skins are tackled on a board and col
ored by brushing dye over the upper
surface. Great care is taken not to
put on enough at one time to soak
through and stain the inside.
The best skins are made up In white
and light colors. Blemishes can be
concealed, or at least palliated, by sew
eral coats of dye. Next comes the
cutting out, which is where the French
mostly do excel. A Frenchman will
get out Of hundred skins al least
dozen more pairs of gloves than any
one else, and that, too, without skimp-
ing or in any way curtailing the fair
proportions of single pair. First,
the skins are family dampened, then
rubbed all over with a blunt edged
knife and cut in half. From each side
is cut a strip just wide enough for @
glove. They are laid face out, shaped
accurately one to another and a stiff
glove pattern so firmly pressed upon
them that it leaves an outline for the
scissors to follow. Cutting out the
thumb hole is nice job.
On ITS accuracy and shape mainly
depend the comfort Of the glove.
Thumb pieces and gussets are cut from
fragments-often of different skin.
1t is imperative that all parts match
in color-and the thin parts take dye
differently to the thick ones. Sewing
is done with silk, usually an exact
match to the leather First, the orna-
mental stitching goes on the back ;
then the thumb is set in; after that
the outer seam is sewed; then the
fingers and gussets. When all are
finished, nothing remains but to finish
the top, bind the wrist slit, sow on
buttons and provide buttonholes. For
a long time the work was done wholly
by hand. Now, the glove sewing
machine has doubled the work.
woman's effective capacity. Without
It half dozen pairs day was her
utmost stint. With 1t she finishes a
dozen with more ease, and for nearly
as much money the pair.
The perfect glove is finer than silk
1t is softer than baby's cheek, elastic
as political platform. Anciently
master glovers had to sign that
their gloves would go in walnut
shell, and showed in their windows
gloves of full size folded into the COM
pass of that small round. 1t would
go hard to put pair of twenty-button
length in such space. Ladies of the
revolution and thirty years after wore
gloves that wonld quite put 10 shame
the longest opera kids of our time
They wrinkled all over the arm from
shoulder to wrist and were cut loose
enough not to need any opening what
ever. They came in white, buff, pink
vivid blue, grass green and deep roy a
purple, as we'll as black and crimson.
Altogether they were gorgeous
spectacular and away handsomel
than the stumpy, one-button affair
that up to twenty years ago were th,
correct wear for full dress.
M. g. WILLIAMS,