Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 15.pdf/524

 Gloves. value; besides there appears to be from the earliest times a trenchant idea as to the sacredness of the glove as a pledge of faith; hence, the giving of a glove as emblematic of an obligation followed. This pledge of the glove, the separation of a pair, each one useless without the other, and to be held apart until the day of reckoning and redemp tion, was an idea suggestive and full of ro mantic simplicity well calculated to appeal to the direct minds of primitive people. A gift of land to the church was often ac complished by depositing the giver's glove upon the altar as a seal of the compact. The

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In Holland a quaint custom has survived the deluge of matter-of-fact, and illustrates one of the oldest means of proxy known to the antiquarian. While lawyers and scribes have made, in unmistakable terms, written conveyances of deputized power of action in place of the simple sending of a glove as an evidence of locum tenens, yet when the Dutch Ian of today, who has gone to the Indies to make his fortune, becomes lonely and longs for one of the plump, blue-eyed, peachcheeked damoselles of the dykes to share his heart and home, he writes to some friend describing his tastes, hopes and desires. The

GLOVE OF HENRY VI.

Earl of Shrewsbury, in vowing to build an abbey to. St. Peter in 1083, placed his glove upon the altar as a pledge of faith. The glove has borne a prominent part in the affairs of brides as 'well as bargains. The gift of gloves from a lover to his inamorata was considered a binding factor in the be trothal contract. "Scales to the truth of hearts," says the Coventry man in that rare pamphlet issued in 1618, in which the advan tage of Country and Court were debated. It was held that the gift of "a payre of Gloves & a handkerchiffe are as good as the obliga tions."

friend forthwith proceeds on the French legal maxim, cherches la femme. When he finds one both suitable and willing, he sends to the exile her photograph and description, the lat ter including both her weight and the size of her dot. If her pedigree and propor tions are satisfactory, the return mail brings the power-of-attorney and a left-hand glove to the friend, who goes through the marriage ceremony by proxy and dispatches the blush ing bride on the next packet to restore the left glove to its mate and receive the nuptial kiss. Instances of holding land by the tenure of