Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1900-01-04
CAR DRIVERS GLOVES
And the Various Mittens Worn Dy Mo-
tormen and Gripmen.

The car driver, when be wore any
coverings on his hands at all, mas al
ways worn gloves. He needed the use
OF his separate fingers in handling the
reins, but his modern successor. the
gripman or the motormaD. while wear
ing gloves in summer, in winter wears
mttens; he does not need the use OF
his fingers separately in handling the
mechanical appliances he nanipulates.
and mittens are the warmer and more
comfortable. In summer all wear
gloves. Aside from their greater con
yenience, they are at that season
cooler. Gloves and mitteus for motor
men, gripmen and car drivers are made
in many-a hundred or mJre-ditferent
varieties. The materials used IN their
manufacture are horsehida Duckskin
sheepskin, cowhide, calfsktu and rub
Der, the glove or the ml-ten being
made perhaps entirely of d single one
Of these materials or of two IN combi-
nation, 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 NIT
ten.
Horsehide has in recent years come
TO be largely used for gripmenS and
motormen's mittens. There is made of
horsehide 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 horse
hide mittens is made with d WOODEN lin
ing and with what is called an extern
sion cuff, also of wool, to be turned
back over the wrist of the wearer. The
hOrsehide tanned for mtttens does not
get hard, nor does il shrink. Of
course, no man using leather gloves or
mittens of any kind ever throws them
aside when they are wet 10 care for
themselves, but he dries them care
fully, occasionally WorEiDg .bem with
sort of a massage, to keep hem soft
and flexible
The driver wearing gloves buys very
probo bly, gloves of buckskiu. very stout
and heavy, and the old driver is likely
to buy them unlined. He wears next
his hands, with the unIined buckskin
gloves over them, a fleeCe-Iined cotton
glove that is specially made for this
use; it keeps the hand warm and keeps
off the chill of the leather drawing off
the buckskin glove, thu driver has in
wet or cold weather a hand that is dry
and with which he car easily and con-
veniently get at his watch And if
these inner gloves get wet or damp
from the perspiratiOn O.. the hand
they can be easily and sadiIy dried
separately from the LuEskin gloves
and so quickly made ready to wear
again inside the buckssu
These gloves are worn pretty large
so that they will not sramp the free
dom Of the wearer's hand: that thew
may be put on and taken of readily
they are cut with a wide and roomv
wrist part. In that part of the glove
nowadays there is inseg. with it's base
at the edge Of the wris a small gore
of softer leather. Attached to the
glove at one side of This gore is a
strap with a snap in the end of it.
while at the other side is button,
this snap and button 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 bet
ter protection from the Weather. The
old style. without snaps, commonly.
until a 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 fitted
with snaps. But frog mouths are
worn more or less in the country. and
still to some extent here: and every
car driver knows the frog-mouth
glove.
Many gloves are reinforced 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 character
istfc of the gloves of all kinds such
as worn by car drivers. gripmen and
motormen that the thumb is of the
same piece as the glove: it is not a
sewed-in thumb. They don't take any
chances of the thumb tearing ont -
New York Sun