The Press., 1909-12-29
TIE MUFFS MEN WORE
They Were Decked With Lace
 and Bows of Ribbon.
4 FASHION OF OTHER DAYS.

dies-DoubIe Muffs Were Once In
 Vogue Extremes of Style In Sizes.
 Muffs were invented for the use of man. At least so the legend goes. It seems a lassic shade found the air of tho world so beastly cold whep he re- asccndad to earth after his death that his hanGs were almost frozen.
 Consequently it was deoreed that the slayer of the poor young gentleman should kill enough sables-evidently sables were appreciated even In those early days-to make a covering for the frosted fingers. He did it, and that was the origin of the huff.
 Even if one is not prepared to ac- cept this account of the first huff as authoritative there Is one thing that is certain. It is only in very modern times that muffs have been the exclu- sive property of women. Up to the third quarter of the eighteenth cen tury men were quite as addicted to them as women were.
 Tn the wardrobe accounts of Henry, prince of Wales, for 1908 the prices of two muffs are set down. The most ex- pensive cost E7, a very big sum in those days, and is described as being made of cloth of silver wrought with purls, plates and Venice twists of sil- yer and gold The other was com paratively plain one of black satin e1n- broidered with black silk, and it's price was approximately less, only 60 shfl. Iings.
 At the time of Charles and Charles IT. there was curious fashion of dou- ble muffs, a small one for each hand, something like a big loose cuff. The single or ordinary muffs carried by the English ladies of Hollar's etchings are of medium size and made entirely of smooth fur, arranged, as rule, with the hair running rourd the huff. At the extreme end of the century, after the advent of William of Orange, mems muffs were still small and were generally suspended from a ribbon round the neck, but in 1703 1t seems to have been more usual to loop the muf to a coat button. There is widely prevalent idea, I think, that masculine huff wearers invariably belonged to the dandy class-the fops, beaus and macaronies-but this was not actually the case, although the fashion was certainly scoffed at by some contempo- rary writers.
 Staid ard elderly gentlemen carried muffs habitual1y. For instance, Dr. Josiah Tucker, dean of Gloucester and | famous political economist, was so attached to his huge fur huff that he carried it even when officiating at the cathedral services. Englishmen, how ever, do not seem ever to have favored lace frilled muffs such as were affected by Frenchmen during the early part of the eighteenth century, but contented themselves with trimmings of ribbon bows, adornments quite sufficiently ef- feminate, one would think.
 Muffs, both ladies' and gentlemen's, varied much in size at different times from the reign of Queen Anne onward. Tn 171O they were very tiny, but grew somewhat larger during the following couple of decades. In. 1740, however, they had decreased again, and little later Horace Walpole writes of send ing George Montagu "a decent small ish huff that you may put in your pocket, and it cost but IA shillings." But by 176O both sexes were carrying such capacious muffs that pet dogs were often concealed in their warm re- cesses. About this time, by the way, muffs made of feathers were intro duced by reason it is said, of an un- usual scarcity of furs in the market.
 Tn 17s6 ladies' muffs-men, except such eccentric fogies as Dean Tucker, had by this time given up wearing such things-were decidedly diminu- tive. However, at the beginning of the nineteenth century they were again of monster proportions and so continued for about thirty years.
 Two muffs of the year 1900 shown in a fashion plate of that year are of long, shaggy fur, and in the print one is colored yellow and has a bow of purple ribbon in the center, while the other is deep brown and has no trim ming. Another huge huff of rough, dark fur is shown in a set of fashion plates for 1903.
 A few years nearer our own time the modish huff was large, fiat and so widely open at the ends that 1t could have afforded but scanty protection to the wrists. One example was made of ermine, a fur which was in high favor from this time up to the mid-Victorian period.-London Queen.