The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-10-10
THE RISE OF THE COLLAR.
mas BEEN AN ARTICLE OF DRESS
FOR 5000 YEARS.

EuEiiSh NONA So
From the Chicago Chronicle.
Asa development of the last 5000 years
che collar is to classify it roughly, either
barbarc or civilized. In the first class
must be ranked such CHASTITY groupings af-
Ter beauty as pendants of human bones,
strings Of glass beads and the celluloid an
acbronism; in the second, various adorn-
ments in gems, lace and linen. Between
these extremes, winding into each and
having some of the qualities of each, may
he named the collar of medieval and
modern knighthood, the knotted necker-
chief Of the bandit, the chain of servitude
and the halter of punishment.
Humanity has ever shown strong inn
pulse to bedeck its neck. Civilization must
not claim a regard for the collar as it's
peculiar development. For barbarism
gives phenomenal prominence to the
alornment. Informal history, not yet
twenty years old, has recorded the I'M
affected surprise of the captive Zulu king
to find that the paper collar in which he
was exulting would not be accepted as
a full presentation dress at Cape castle.
A glance at the pictured ruins of Nine
web and Babylon and at the carved re-
cords of Memphis and Thebes shows that
clrclcts, rich and hamboyant, abounded
both for neck and arm. The Hebrew Jo
seph had a gold chain hung around his
neck as the insignia of power. The or
uament was probably harmless as far as
Joseph was concerned, but it set a peril
Gus fashion. Eight centuries later we find
Isaiah lamenting over 'the chains and the
bVap wi
daughters of Jerusalem we're frivolously
adorning themselves AS for three fam
Gus danes of myth and poetry-Helen,
Penelope, Clytemnestra-they doubtless
shone at home in jewelled necklaces,
while their lords CLEANED up and down
the road in collars of mail. 1t may be
here added that necklaces are interwov-
en- with the legendary tragedies of Queen
Guinevere and the glossy-throated Isolde,
and with the modern tragedy of Marie
Antoinette
Pictorial representations of Greece In its
prime show general scorn of the collar
as if statesmen and orators would not al
low any hamper whatever put upon their
eloquent threats. But Macedon, near at
hand and Rome, not far away, were,
even then, forging a chain of servitude
for the Hellenic neck.
When, in the fourth century before
Christ, Titus Manlius slew a gigantic Gaul
dead to his own a twisted CHAIN called
t0rque, he was thenceforth saluted as Tor
quatus. Thus we see that Celt and Latin
alike gloried the collar. They may
have brought the fashion-both families
from the dim old homestead Arya. The
lavish display of the Romans in general
display in personal adornment in BAN
quets, in anus smerts-through the last
days of the republic and the ruinous
course of the empire is a matter of well
known history. How the sword of usur-
pation-or of indignation-1ashed among
jeweled necklaces and royal decorations
through the five Christian centuries
through fourteen rather-we have ell read
and heard.
Chivalry made man an esquire by in
vesting him with collar and spurs. To
these equipments We're added, in the case
of the full-grown knight an entire shell
of m@al. In the development of honor
airy knighthood the collar has been a con-
spicuous badge of ornament. The Order
of Golden Fleece, founded at Brussels in
1870 by Philip the Good, Duke of Bur-
gundy, conferred upon its members a col
lar of steel with a flint setting so bright
as to appear to emit flames. Pendent to
this framework hung the miniature figure
of n sheep-a device to suggest the golden
fleece rescued to Europe by Jason.
The right to confer this famous collar
has been, since 1900, the equal privilege of
England, Austria and Spain.
The Order of st. Michael preserved a
splendid collar through its vicissitudes of
fortune. This order was suppressed dur
Ing the French revolution, was restored
by Louis XVIII, and, in 1890 came to an
end. Another famous collar is that of the
order of the Garter, with the greater and
the lesser George. The Order of Bath
the Order of the Elephant and the Order
Of the Black Eagle all clothe the neck with
respondent glory. A collar much specu-
lated upon, and not yet understood as to
Its full Specification, is known to history
as the LancaStrain S. S. The knightly or
GERS of to-day show, in their parades and
burial service, a regalia conspicuous as
to collar
The sixteenth century may be taken as
the boundary between the ancient and the
modern collar. When Henry II of the
house the Italian ruff Catherine de Me-
Glci ruled, fashion of France had no choice
nut to don the italian ruff Catherine
ue Medici ruled, as to matters of politics
ana religion through four reigns-thOse of
Her husband and her three weak sons,
francis II, Charles TX and Henry III
ana with her ruled the ruff. 1t is impos-
s.o'e to think of this woman-whether her
mead is lifted toward the heavens in the
stuay OF the stars or bent toward the
odrlh IN the mixing of poisons-without
an investment of Medci collars Spain
ADOPTED the fashion with gravity and
comparative moderation England first
yea IT as vice, then endured it-then let
II embrace her.
IA lle reign of Queen Elizabeth the La
W. rum attained its greatest Anglo-Saxon
- opofuons. The gallants and ladies who
Sfo'nered around Henry III. wore wire
1'I.' rutfs one-third of a yard deep, but
a-i11 lhans were as rule, content with
read Of one-quarter OF a yard. AS may
lIt '"- eined, courtiers-French and Eng
,1-'"und banqueting an inconvenient
i,',"sl'e' Longhandled spoons came into
a." "S fashionable necessity For time
49, stately arches Of pride" stood up
800 or four deep, supported by what a
r,,st OF the age called "a master devil
a@o lrill stffened with gold. silver.
,o, ana wells. If the satanie support could
rt We 'torded the ruffs were fastened 70
d5r '9,S or allowed to fall over the shout
ba,. Ihe windmill sails. Everybody will
49,. t"' m mourns the satirist whether
g. Caa afford them or not No people is
e5ds '''ous in new fangles." And then he
IN more seriously: "Monstrous ruffs-
r9orotts,,.,S FPS and a half to the devill God be
eOul unto usp'
"' mon. ii must he ran1eno hared on