The San Juan islander. [volume] (Friday Harbor, Wash.) 1898-1914, 1909-12-03
FIRST GLOVE WEARERs.
c..ntIets Of Ancient Hunesrs-s~''
Who Wore Gloves.

Not Only VI
+r;nsic beauty Of many specimens
that have been preserved, but also
because of the symbolism connected
with them, gloves will ever have q
special interest for the student OF
the past. - rorv
oar1r neriod there is no doubt,
though exactly when they first came
into use it is impossible to say, Tor
there are no actual references to
them in early Greek or Roman MSS.
The first mention of gloves is IN the
"0dvssey," in which it is stated that
7 aertes. the father of Ulysses, wore
them on his hunting expeditions to
nrotect his hands from the thorns,
and in his "Cyropaedia" Xenophon
renroaches the Persians for their Ell
feminacy in covering their hands.
Both in the east and west the
glove when once adopted soon be-
came of Importance as the recog-
nized symbol Of the transfer OF
property, the seller of land giving
the purchaser glove as token OF
possession, for which reason it IS
generally supposed that in the much
quoted passage in Ruth iv, verse Z,
tsTo confirm all things a man pluck
ed off his shoe and gave it to his
neighbor," the word shoe should
have been translated glove.
In Christian iconography a glove
was very early associated with GER
tain saints, notably with St. Front,
who is said to have left his glove
behind him after attending the fu-
neral of st. Martha, the sister of
Lazarus, and with St. Cesarius,
bishop of Aries, who is credited
with having sent his glove full OF
air to district in his diocese suffer-
ing from protracted calm.
A glove worn on the left hand by
a saint is a token of noble birth,
probably 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 bishops on their investiture. st.
Ambrose of Milan, who died in 1913,
is represented in painting now in
the sacistry of the Cathedral Of
Aix-la- Chapelle wearing gloves on
the back of which a star is embroid-
cred. Gloves are among the en-
blems of st. Amadeus of Savoy,
whose sister is supposed to have CIV
en- him a 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 sun
beam, taking it for cord.
As is well known, the throwing
down of a glove was in feudal times
a challenge to single combat and
the picking up of that glove an &C
ceptance of the defiance, a fact
skillfully turned to account by
Browning in his beautiful poem
1.-The Glove" In which he makes
the heroine dash down her glove
at the feet of the lion, only to have
it flung back in her face by her
lover.
Knights used to wear lady's
glove in their helmets as a token
that they would defend her cause
against all corners, and to this day
a special significance attaches to
the gift Of pair Of gloves from q
man to a woman. The custom Of
taking off the right hand glove be-
fore shaking hands with lady is
probably survival of the days Of
chivalry, as is also the presentation
Of pair of white gloves to a judge
when there are no cases to be tried
at an assize as well as to the giving
of black gloves to mourners at a
funeral.-Mrs. Arthur Bell in Col
Letting.