Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1899-02-15
ROMANCE OF GLOVES.
The Part They Have Played in Worries History

| - -
CT an odd turn of mind, different from
other people in the way of always
seeking some new manner of excite
ment. One day l found a dainty glove
on the street and / thought perhaps
here was chance TO have little
| sport. l wrote an advertisement and
inserted it in the column of the local
paper, reading something like this: If
| the young lady who lost the glove at
| the corner of Blank street and Dash
avenue desires it returned. she Will
| please come to the park between the
hours of and g. this afternoon, carry
| ing a bunch of flowers of some sort in
| her right hand. This is both for sport
and for the return of the glove
Il never thought there was SO many
girls IL the city who We're inclined to
have little sport, as found out from
the result of my advertisement That
afternoon l went to the park and no
less than Il different girls appeared,
each with a bouquet in her right hand.
How many more there might have been
who started and We're scared away.
don't know but there were more than
had hoped would come. went into the
band stand and tackled the glove there
and walked away, not daring to carry
the sport any farther. l do not know
how many claimed that glove. and l
did not care. but there We're too many
in the game to make it at all romantic,
though it certainly was amusing
This idea led the reporter to see If
there had been any romances of gloves
in the history of the world and what
they We're. He found that many of the
rulers of the ancient times with their
leading characters had figured in quar-
rels where a glove had been in the
case.
One of the earliest records of the use
of gloves in England is found in
the reign of Ethelred H.. to whom
some German merchants paid toll of
five pairs of gloves. 1t was not, how
ever, until the 18th century that they
We're generally worn by both sexes.
A pair of gloves is said to be at the
bottom of the quarrel between Queen
Anne and the Duchess of Marlboro
which drove the queen to throw herself
into the arms of the Tories.
According to Abigail Hills account
she was sent one day by her mistress
to set a pair of gloves which had been
left on a table in an adjoining ROOM
Abigail found that the duchess. who
was reading a letter at the table. had
inadvertently put on the gloves instead
of her own. On being informed of her
eXclaining:
Have ] really worn anything which
has touched the odious hands of that
dsagreeable woman
Unfortunately for her grace the doors
had been left ajar-the queen heard all
and never forgaVe it.
Queen Anne's was not the only gloves
to bring about an important political
crisis. The HueueEots firmly believed
that the death of Jeanne d'Albert was
due TO poison administered through a
pair OF gloves.
Of had tn
Paris to arrange the marriage of her
son (afterward Henry VII with Mar
suerite OF Valois. daughter of Henry
II. and Catherine de Medici. Like
many another lady she seized the OPP
pcrtunity for doing a little shopping.
and her i'll fate led her to the italian
perfumer Maitre Rene. from whom
Queen Jeanne obtained IA pair OF
gloves.
| Immediately afierward she was
struck down by a fatal illness. and the
Huguenuts whispered that it was not
for nothing that Maitre Rene's goods
were so highly esteemed by Queen
| Catherine. for whom Queen Jeanne's
death proved most opportune.
| Even before the days of Maitre Rene
| Paris gloves We're celebrated. Mar
| .arite Tudor countess of Richmond.
| wrote in 1495 to the queens chamber
| lain, Iamerting that the French gloves
| that he had sent her We're 'otoo much
fer her and shyly adding that the
| Frerch ladies' must he great alto
gether, not only in their estates. but in
| their persons
A few years later the Queen of
| France was sending ring and a glove
to the king OF Scotland. not for the
benefit of his wife. but to tempt him
| into quarreling with his brother-in
law, Henri VIII. Those fatal tokens
! lured James VI. TO Fiodden field.
|
! A dry goods merchant. in discussing
the seasons styles recently. said:
| IT 81,