The times., 1898-10-30
GOLF GOSSIP.
What Players Do and Wear on the
Links.

Links.
When two or three muscular maIdens
are gathered together on the golf course
in earnest conversation you can swiftly
and easily come to the very correct con-
clusion that 1t is fashion. quite as much
as form. that they are discussing-fash-
ion, however, as it exclusively relates to
the wherewithal a woman shall array
herself for comfort far more than beauty
when shaving at her favorite game Now
it is matter of sporting pride, with your
all-around serious golfer. never by any
hazard to appear on the course in clothes
that convey any other impression but
that of having endured long and arduous
wear.
Only the raw recruits and the girls who
play simply because the game is fashion
able ever venture forth in exquisitely
fresh tailor made novelties, for it is very
well known that when a good golfer is
obliged to have a new skirt. a pink coat
or get her feet reshod she resorts to GER
tain methods for taking all the gloss off
her new raiment. She will deliberately
wear her new skirt and coat in the rain
until they appear decently weather-beat-
en- and otherwise reduce a fresh gofing
outfit to proper sober and business-like
aspect before golfiing abroad in it.
In spite of this discipline fashion does
hold her own on the links, and the women
just now are sorely exercised as to wheth
er they shall play out the fall and winter
season in high shoes or in low ones with
puttees. The puttees are new and i'm
proved species of wool leggings that come
to US with all the glamour of Scotch rec
ommendation, and in Scotland the women
this autumn wear stout low-cut shoes and
then warm puttees wound snugly about the
ankle and on up to the knee. A strap un-
der the foot holds puttee firm on the in
step and a garter fastens it just below the
knee, and there simply is not any question
about the comfort puttee gives over
heavy, stiff leather shoe top.
The puttee is merely a long, straight
bandage-like affair, hand knit, of Scotch
wool and dyed in solid colors. The men
took to wearing puttees at once in place
of bulging golf stockings for winter and
the golfing women have just about made
UP their minds to fall in line. Under the
puttee the thinnest of Isle or silk hose
can be worn, for 1t is the close swath-
ing in the wool bandage that keeps out
cold and rheumatism, and gives the ankle
support and spring in walking.
Next after puttees the women on the
links are most deeply interested in the
St Andrews hat. 1t also comes to us
from the land o cakes. and those who
wear it pronounce it the only fit head
gear for the course. 1t is a thing of eX-
quisite simplicity if not of beauty, and
it is made of gray, brown, rusty red or
dull green felt, and of a quality that
shows no malice toward sun or rain.
From low, broad, slightly sugar-loaf
and deeply dented crown a pretty wide
brim springs out. over the eyes it is a
good deal of a roof, but it curls up bit
over the ears, and in the rear it is pared
down rather narrowly. At the base of
the crown runs very narrow ribbon
that exactly matches the felt, and ties in
a minute double bow knot in front. BY
couple of long pins, that may have jewel
heads, this neat and comfortable head
gear is fastened on, and the jeweled heads
are usually two bright cairngorns, set fiat
in silver rims.
If you ask any genuine authority on the
links what will be worn golfing this Win
ter she will not hesitate to say a tartan
skirt, showing the Lindsay Melrose or
Braemar colors, is the proper neither gar
ment while a short Newmarket waist or
plain skirt of soft, warm SaXony cloth
is the most appropriate selection for the
upper half of the body. A fair proportion
of well-dressed golfers wear some simple
dark shirt waist, and over this Norfolk
jacket of scarlet, with cuffs, belt and COL
lar of moss-green velvet. The best golf
skirts are of course unlined and bound
about the hem with a band of soft leather.
Out from the West Indies, where the
English inhabitants play golf, they are
sending charming club bags of the most
flexible and durable fine wicker work.
These are woven full shape and size, have
light wood bottoms and straps made of
grass that looks very like hemp Cloth
and leather bags will fall into disfavor
undoubtedly when greater number of
these wicker cases are imported, for the
latter are most engagingly woven in gay
stripes, checks and broad plaids.
The thickest soles and the broadest toes.
and leather so tough and heavy that it
defies the moisture, are the shoes in which
the daintiest-footed golfer delights to dis
guise her charming eNtremities They are
quite horribly British in weight and size,
but you certainly can tramp the wettest
links from end to end in them, never wear
an overshoe, and yet be as dry of foot
as the Israelites who crossed the Red Sea.