Camas Prairie chronicle. [volume] (Cottonwood, Idaho) 1901-1917, 1908-06-12
FIRST GLOVE wEARERs.

| GauntIetA OF Ancient hunters
Saints Who Wore Gloves.
Not only on account Of the intrinsic
beauty Of many specimens that have
been preserved, but also because of the
symbolism connected with them, gloves
will ever have a special interest for the
student of the past, says a writer in
Collecting.
That they were worn at a very early
period there Is no doubt, though ex.
actly when they first came into use II
actual references to them in early
Greek or Roman MSS. The first men.
ton Of gloves Is In the Odyssey, In
which 1t is stated that Laertes, the
father of Ulysses, wore them on his
hunting expeditions to protect his hands
from the thorns, and in his Cyropaedia
Xenophon reproaches the Perslans for
their effeminacy in covering their
hands.
Both in the east and west the glove
when once adopted, soon became OF
Importance as the recognized symbol OF
the transfer of property, the seller OF
land giving the purchaser glove as q
token Of possession, for which reason II
is generally supposed that in the much.
quoted passage In Ruth Al, ito con.
firm all things a man plucked Off his
shoe and gave it to his neighbour" the
word shoe should have been translated
glove.
In Christian iconography a glove was
very early associated with certain
saints, notably with st. Front, who lie
said to have left his glove behind him
after attending the funeral of st. Mar.
tina, the sister of Lazarus, and with
st. Cesarlus, bishop of Aries, who Is
credited with having sent his glove
full of air to district in his diocese
suffering from a protracted calm.
A glove worn on the left hand by q
saint is a token of noble birth, prob
ably because the falcon was carried on
the left wrist, and as early as the third
century A. d. gloves were given by
the emperor to the bishops on their
inyestiture. St. Ambrose of Milan
who died in 1893, is represented in Q
painting, now in the sacrlsty of the
cathedral of AiX-la-Chapelle, wearing
gloves on the back of which a star is
embroidered. Gloves are among the
emblems of st. Amadeus of Savoy, |
whose sister Is supposed to have given
given him glove she had received |
from the Blessed Virgin, and the story
goes that st. David of Sweden, when
his sight was failing him from old age
hung his gloves ON a sunbeam, taking
1t for q cord.
As is we'll known, the throwing down
of a glove was In feudal times a chaL
lenge to single combat and the picking
up of that glove an acceptance OF the
defiance, a fact skillfully turned to &C.
count by Browning in his beautiful
poem 1.-THE Glove" In which be makes
the heroine dash down her glove al
the feet of the lion, only to have II
flung back in her face by her lover.
Knights used to wear a lady's glove
in their helmets as a token that they
"Ou4N NSi0hu hCA CAUSE aSdlhSt All
corners, and to this day special sig.
nificance attaches to the gift of a pair
Of gloves from a man to a woman. The
custom of taking Off the right-hand
glove before shaking hands with a lady
IS probably a survival of the days Of
as Is also the presentation OF
| pair of white gloves to judge when
here are no cases to be tried at an
lssize, as well as to the giving of black
gloves to mOurners at a funeral.