Saturday news. (Watertown, S.D.) 19??-19??, 1909-08-20
THE MUFFS men WORE.
They Were Decked With Lace
' and Bows of Ribbon.
A FASHION OF OTHER DAYS.
Their Use Was Quite Common, Too,
and Not Confined to Fops and DAN
dies-DoubIe Muffs Were Once In
Vogue-Extrenes of STYLE In Sizes,

oIes-Doubie NUNS Were Once In
Vogue-Extremes of Style In Sizes.
Muffs were invented for the use of
man. At least so the legend goes. 1t
seems classic shade found the air of
the world so beastly cold when he re-
assembled to earth after his death that
his hands were almost frozen. ~
Consequently 1t was decreed 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 muff.
Even If one is not prepared to ac-
cept this account of the first muff as
authoritative there is one thing that Is
certain. 1t 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
fury men were quite as addicted to
them as women WERE
In the wardrobe accounts Of Henry,
prince Of Wales, for 1908 the prices Of
two muffs are set down. The most ex-
pensive cost e., very big sum in
those days, and Is described as being
made Of cloth of silver wrought with
purls, plates and Venice twists Of sill
yer and gold. The other was COM
paratvely plain one of black satin en-
broidered with black silk, and it's price
was proportionately less, only 60 shil-
ungs.
At the time Of Charles I and Charles
II. there was curious fashion of dou-
bic muffs, small one for each hand,
something like 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 a rule, with
the hair running round the muff
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 1903 1t seems to
have been more usual to loop the muff
to coat button. There is widely
prevalent idea, think, that masculine
muff wearers invariably belonged to
the dandy class-the tops, beaus and
macaronies-but this was not actually
the case, although the fashion was
certainly scoffed at by some contempt
rary writer's.
2taid and elderly gentlemen carried
Nuhs habitually. For instance, DR..
Josiah Tucker, dean of Gloucester and
fAWous political economist, was SO
attached to- his huge fur muff that he
carried it even when officiating at the
cathedral services. Englishmen, how
ever, do not seem ever to have favored
lace fri1led 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-
Terminate, one would think.
Muffs, both ladies' and gentlemen's,
varied much in size at different times
from the reign Of Queen Anne onward
In ITO they were very tiny, but grew
somewhat larger during the following
couple Of decades. In 174O, however,
they had decreased again, and little
later Horace Walpole writes of send
ing George Montagu "a decent small
1sh muf that you may put in your
pocket, and it cost but IA shi1lings."
But by 178O both sexes were carrying
such capacious NUTS that pet dogs
were often concealed In their warm re-
cesses. About this time, by the way,
NUTS made OF feathers were intro
duced by reason, 1t is said, OF an I'M
usual scarcity Of furs in the market.
In 1856 ladies' muffs-men, except
such eccentric fogtes 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 50 continued
for about thirty years.
Two rnuffs Of the year 1900 shown In
q fashion plats 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 muir Of rough,
dark fur is shown In q set Of fashion
piates for 1903.
A few years nearer our own time the
modisb mum was large, fiat and 80
widely open at the ends that It could
have afforded but scanty protection to
the wrists. One example was made Of
ermine, fur which was In high favor