The evening times., 1899-11-20
THE MoToRMAN's MITTENs.
Gloves Made in a Hundred or More
Nnrfetiea.
frrum the New York SUM

| (Frum the New York SUM-
The car driver. when he wore any cover
ings on his hands at all. has always worn
gloves. He needed the use of his separate
! fingers in the handling of reins; but his
modern successor, the gripman or the mo-
torman. while wearing gloves in summer,
I in winter wear mittens: he does not need
the use of his fingers separately in han
ding the mechanical appliances he manip-
ulates, and mittens are the warmer and
more comfortable. In summer all wear
gloves. Aside from their greater con-
venience, they are at that season cooler
Gloves and mittens for motormen, gripmen
and car drivers are made in many. a hun
dred or more. different varieties. The ma
terials used in their manufacture are
horsehide, buckskin, sheepskin, cowhide,
calfskin, and rubber, the glove or the nit
ten being made perhaps entirely of a sin
gle one of these materials, or of two in
combination; and then many of these
gloves or mittens are lined with some other
material. or they are, it may be, worn with
some other kind of glove or mitten.
Horsehide has in recent years come to
be largely used for gripmen's and motor
mems mittens. There is made of horse
hide for this use a leather that is not only
strong and has good wearing qualities,
but that is at the same time soft and
pliable. One kind of horsehide mittens is
made with a woolen lining and with what
is called an extension cuff, also of wool,
to be turned back over the wrist of the
wearer. The horsehide tanned for mittens
does not get hard, nor does 1t shrink.
or course. no man using leather gloves
or mittens Of any kind ever throws them
aside when they are wet, to care for Them
selves: but he dries them carefully, oc-
casionally working them with a sort of
a massage, to keep them soft and flexible.
The driver wearing gloves buys very
probably, gloves Of buckskin, very stout
and heavy. and the old driver is likely to
buy them unlined. He wears next to his
hands. with the unlined buckskin gloves
over them, a fieeced-lined cotton glove
that is specially made for this use: 1t
keeps the hand warm and keeps off the
chill of the leather: drawing off the buck
skin glove, the driver has In wet or cold
weather. hand that is dry, and with which
he can easily and conveniently get at his
watch. And IL these inner gloves get wet,
or damp from the perspiration of the hand,
they can be easily and readily dried sepa-
rately from the buckskin gloves, and so
quickly made ready to wear again inside
the buckskins
Inese gloves are worn pretty large, 90
that they will not cramp the freedom Of
the wearer's hand: that they may be put
on and taken OF readily they are cut with
wlae ana roomy wrist part. In that part
OF the glove nowadays there is inset. with
its base at the edge OF the wrist, a small
gore of softer leather. Attached to the
glove at one side of this gore is a strap
with snap in the end of it, while at the
other side is button; this snap and but
ton being like those nowadays used on kid
gloves, and in other uses. With the snap
unfastened the opening of the glove is
hand-wide; when the glove is on and the
snap is fastened, that part of the glove is
drawn closer around the wrist, keeping the |
glove on better. and affording better pro-
lection from the weather. The old style |
without snaps, commonly, until few years |
ago, worn everywhere by car drivers were
called frog mouths. Comparatively few
frog mouths are worn nowadays by city
car drivers, the gloves of this kind worn
here being mostly such as are ftted with |
snaps. But frog mouths are worn more or |
less in the country, and still to some ex-
tent here; and every car driver knows the |
frog mouth glove.
Many gloves are re-enforced on the /
thumb, on the side toward the palm of the |
hand, where the most wear comes with an |
additional thickness OF leather, which is |
riveted on. 1t Is a characteristic of the
gloves OF all kinds such as worn by car
1riyers. gripmen, and motormen, that the
numb is Of the same piece as the glove; it
g. not sewed-in thumb. They don't take
my chances Of the thumb tearing out.