The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1924-02-12
MEMS CALVES FIRST
SHOWN IN HOSIERY
WHAT WOMEN WORE DID NOT
MATTER BECAUSE OF
THEIR GOWNS.

BY me halldom," quoth the Planta-
genet dandy of the time OF Richard
H., there's a run in me new hosen.
Perdition take the mercer who said
they wouldn't drop stitch"
Well might the wife, taken to task
for her expenditure on sheer or nude
silk stockings and her display OF
them as she sits cross-legged in the
hotel Peacock Alley, reply to her
carping spouse: flush, tush. Ex-
posture, vanity, you say. Why, you
men started it before we ever thought
of it and OF all the vain, peacocky
strutting things-you used to wear
hose stretching from thigh to ankle
showing all colors of the rainbow,
and parade up and down just to show
off no matter whether you had
skinny calves, fat ones or ones really
worth looking at
Researches conducted by DR.. Frank
H. Vizetelly managing editor OF the
New Standard Dictionary, IN running
down the antecedents of those articles
OF intimate apparel variously known
at various times as hosen hose, stock
ings and socks and his delving into
srch ancient chronicles as the man
uscripts of Sir Richard Cotton, re-
veal that first on the legs OF man
hose displayed the contours OF the
neither extremities. The chatelaine OF
the 18th century had an all-day JOB
ahead OF her when she set out to darn
her knights socks. g.,
Stockings were a mark OF wealth
and station in the early Anglo Saxon
DAYS. and were known as Sem hose,
being wound around the legs from
above the knee to the ankle like
bandage. They were made OF leather
and we're essentially an ornament
rather than a bulwark against dirt
What the women wore didn't matter,
for their long gowns concealed all
but their toe tips, but the men,
whether in robe of state or doublet
OF the chase. reveled in lamb castings
which to-day would stop a taxicab
as quickly as the new French inven-
ton. King Canute, he Of the reced-
ing tide legend, was proud OF his un-
derpinning and wore stockings reach
ing 10 the knee and striped horizant-
a1lv in two Colors. Wing Roberts,
surnamed Curthose because OF his
short stockings, was the 1ntroducer
OF what has become the modern sock,
though its progenitor was worn as
soft shoe by the first OF the Greek
comedy actors. The Cottonian man
uscripts contain a picture Of King
Edgar 900 A. d. with his legs EN-
swathed up to the knee in carriers OF
gold" The carriers were really strips
of gold cloth crossed around the leg
and tied in a fancy knot, terminating
in hanging tassels at the knee.
William Wore Red Leather
The Anglo Saxons had their chang
ing STYLES and the crossed bands were
replaced for a time by leather or
skin hose OF one piece, held in place
at the top by an embroidered border.
The Norman conquest brought re-
turn to cross gathering, and William
the conqueror wore hose OF the
court style during his reign. The
shapeliest of Music Box girls is no
prouder of her neither eXtremities than
were the dandies of France under
Charles the Wise, and they wore
stockings of different colors on each
leg. Black and yellow, green and
yellow in horizontal stripes were
some of the color schemes affected,
and to distinguish the right leg form
the left they encircled the former with
a spiral gathering Of another color.
The laws OF the time were such that
riders thrown by shying horses were
unable to collect damages.
The fashion of embroidering stock
ings with colored silks came in with
Edward l., and long hose became the
vogue in the fourteenth century, cost
ing the equivalent OF So pair. Costly
hose became the rage, so much so
that law was made under Edward
". forbidding the middle classes
from wearing any "hosen, close or
open, beyond the price OF IA pence the
pair" Queen Philippa, consort OF
Edward III, may not have shown her
stockings to anyone but her iege
lord. but it is OF record that she had
in her wardrobe pairs "Of as many
colors as there are days in the week.
During the reign of this couple the cir