South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1917-02-05
The Modern Cult
Of the White Glove
Spread OF the Sanitary Cover
ing from Surgeons to Hotel
and Restaurant Workers a
Hopeful Sign.
by Woods Hutchinson. VI. ID.

by hoouS HUTCHINSON. VI. II.
The Worlds Most Famous Writer on
Medical Subjects.
All is not gold that glitters. nor is
everything clothed in spotless white
as pure as the driven snow within.
But the presumption is in their IA
vor in both instances, in spite Of the
cynic and the pessimist.
AS Einstein long ago remarked:
But if il does glider you can bet il
ain'd mud" And a spotless surface
is. at least in legal phrase, Clean
hands; which is much. indeed often,
everything. From a moral point Of
view il may De That which cometh
from within that defileth "a man, -
but from a surgical and sanitary il
is emphatically that which cometh
from without"
Even the deadliest virus in the
blood and the bones is no menace
whatever TO others until IL gets
spread on the surface, often visibly
so. So that a clean surface, from a
practical point of view, goes deep"
The ambition to have white hands,
part from its snobbish implications,
is a distinctly laudable one.
Cult of White Glove.
The modern cult of the white glove
was born on the operating table in
the hospital. Everything else had
been made either white and shining,
like walls. floors. tables. cabinets, or
white and steam sterilized. like
gowns, towels. operating suits -ev-
erything except the surgeons hands.
which. unfortunately couldn't be
boiled without distinct loss Of eff
cheney.
Almost everything imaginable
short of that was done 10 them in
the way Of cleaning and sterilizing,
with the result that the skin grad
ually grew rough and cracked and
the folds around the nails thickened
and swollen. So that in spite of the
utmost rigOr a few fugitive germs
would succeed in hiding out in these
cracks and pocket folds. 1t was
found necessary 70 relax our first
fury of scrubbing and cleansing and
to imprison the "irreducible mini
mum" Of bugs with gloves first OF
rubber, then of closely woven white
cotton.
1t wasn't long before the idea be-
gan TO spread; nurses and orderlies
began to wear white gloves around
the wards health officers took il up
and insisted that master bakers
should wear gloves when handling
the fresh bread as 1t came hot and
sterile out of the oven, shooting it
deity into sterilized oiled paper
bags.
Taken Up i'm Hotels.
Hotels began TO boast and publish
in their circulars that the chefs in
their kitchens performed all of the
final operations Of cooking and hand
ling the feed in fresh-laundered
white gloves. Then came that inter
esting eruption of Spotless Town,
restaurants and lunch rooms, with
glittering white tile floors, white
marble walls. white porcelain or en-
amel coated tables. waitress and
chefs in white uniform.
magician in fiat cap and apron, per-
forming miracles with batter and a
hot griddle. which fairly make your
mouth water as you gaze fascinated,
waves his turning wand in gloves Of
snowy whiteness as ever worn by
fairy godmother.
Rise i'm Standards.
And now as the latest blossom up
on the fair tree of spotlessness, in
some of the most fastidious hotels
an restaurants comes the butter boy
OF butter girl A slender, graceful
figure. all in white from cap TO slip
per. gliding in and out among the
black or liveried coats Of the wait
ers like a fairy at a pantomime
deftIy handling about pots Of CREAMY
golden butter on silvery shells with
lily gloved fingers and spotless
sleeves.
Few things of recent growth have
been both more strikingly illustrat-
i've of the rise in popular standards
of cleanliness and immaculateness
in food handling and serving and at
the same time more educational and
more helpfully suggestive in the d.
rection of still further rise ana
spreading Of these standards.
The white lunch marks sanitary
epoch OF no mean Importance. and
significance II out glitters the sa-
loon and outshines the barroom and
the "pick-me-ups" which IL serves
are the real thing. and draw neither
headaches nor heartaches in their
train
BITS OF INFORMATION.
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