The star. (Reynoldsville, Pa.) 1892-1946, 1907-04-10
ORIGIN OF THE HANDKERCHIEF.
An Indispensable Pocket Companion
For the Civilized Man.


To-day the handkerchief is every
body's Indispensable pocket compan-
ion, and we can hardly conceive how
the world could get along without it.
And yet there was time when the
handkerchief was not known even in
name, and women celebrated as beau
tiful never made use of it, Still, no
blame attaches to the beauties of
those days; for civilization had then
not called forth reciprocal relation
between nose and handkerchief. On
the other hand, the habit of wiping
the nose and the primitive mode ap-
piled to this operation has been trans
mitted to us, from generation to gen.
Grafton, in straight line from our first
parents. For it may be taken for
granted that Adam in paradise, for
want of a handkerchief, used his fing-
ers, and that Eve, in this respect, fol-
lowed her husbands example. They
found each other not less beautiful
and attractive for this practice.
The Scriptures make no mention of
justified in assuming that the ancient
Hebrews employed Adams proceed
ing in all its simplicity. The same
may also be said of the Chaldeans and
Assyrians, who were not much far
ther advanced in civilization than the
Hebrews of their time. AS to the an
cient Persians we learn from Keno
phon that they were ordered by Cyrus
not to spit and drain their noses in
public. Accordingly, there was moth
ing else left for them but to absorb
internally, by means of the aesopha-
gus, that which by right belong to the
handkerchief. Just as little seem the
Greeks to have known the handker-
chief, properly so called. True, they
made use of a kind of cloth or towel,
called sudarion, but this was only to
wipe the face or mouth with. The
orators on the tribune and the poets
in their competitions were not al
lowed to spit or drain their noses;
hence they had to conform to Keno
phon's decree. Even Nero conformed
to this rule, as we learn from the pas
sage in Tacitus: NE sudorem, nisi ca
guam indutui gerebat, veste deter
geret; ut nulla oris aut narium eXcre-
menta viserentur" (Annal xvi, C.
14). No wonder the ancients appre-
Gated nose that did not require to
be thus relieved. They looked espe-
cially in woman for this precious ad-
they inquired about of their intended
wives. Plautus has one of his per-
sonages ask for wife a woman whose
nose is not wet, and Juvenal shows us
a husband who, in the support of his
divorce suit, adduces the only fact
quent use of her fingers. The Ro-
mans borrowed from the Greeks the
use of the sudarion, which in Latin
| became sudarium. 1t was exclusively
intended to wipe the perspiration
from the face.
1t is an historically established fact
that not until $50 years ago a woman
made for the first time use of hand
kerchief. The woman who thus took
the first step to the refining of man
kind was pretty Venetian. Hence
Italy is the cradle of the handker-
chief. The Italian "fazzoletto," as it
was called, was first appropriated by
the women of France about 1910, and
about 1880 it appeared in Germany,
where, however, at first the common
| neonle were forbidden ifs Use Even
earlier than in France the handker-
chief came in vogue in Turkey under
Soliman (1520-66), where it was con-
sidered a distinction of the highest
state officers and dignitaries. AS to
England we read that Henry VIII. al
ready used "handkerchiefs of Hol-
land, frynged with Venice gold" and
some 'of Flanders worke," and that
laced handkerchiefs and handker-
chiefs of silk and cambria, richly
lace, were fashionable in the reign of
Elizabeth. Evelyn, in one of his sa-
tiracal poems describing a woman's
toilet, includes, among a host of other
articles:
Of pocket mouchoirs, nose to drain,
A dozen laced, dozen plain.
To-day the handkerchief is no lon
ger luxury, but an indispensable ar
ticle of toilet. The Japanese have
paper handkerchiefs, which they burn
after using.-New York Tribune.
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