GLOVE 



2513 



GLOVERSVILLE 



GLOVE, gluv, a covering for the hand used 

 by mankind since the days of ancient Cave 

 Dwellers. The word is derived from the Anglo- 

 Saxon gloj, or looj, meaning the palm of the 

 hand. Gloves are made of leather, the skins 

 of sheep, calves, lambs, kids, dogs, rats, kan- 

 garoos, and also of silk, cotton, canvas and 

 worsted. All kinds of leather or kid for glove- 

 making are treated differently from leathers 

 for other purposes; the object sought in dress- 

 ing and tanning the skin is to make it soft and 

 pliable. The leather is usually cut by dies 

 and sewn by machinery. Silk, cotton and 

 worsted gloves are sometimes knitted, but 

 more often are cut from pieces of woven fabric 

 and sewn together. In the manufacture of 

 men's gloves the United States leads the world, 

 but France is supreme in the production of 

 the finer kinds of women's gloves. The name 

 kid, commonly applied to gloves of soft, thin 

 leather, does not imply that such gloves are 

 made of kid skin. The number of kid-gloves 

 produced annually is far in excess of the supply 

 of any one kind of leather. The term dog- 

 skin is also applied to gloves made of sheep- 

 skin, and relates only to the finish of the 

 leather. Suede gloves are made with the in- 

 side of the skin forming the outside of the 

 glove. 



The state of New York is the center of the 

 American glove industry. Glovemakers from 

 Scotland were induced to settle on lands in 

 Fulton County granted to them by Sir Wil- 

 liam Johnson in 1760. From that date glove- 

 making has been the principal occupation of 

 the inhabitants of that section. One city, 

 Gloversville, so called on account of the num- 

 ber of its glove-making establishments, an- 

 nually produces gloves to the value of $9,000,- 

 000, the output of the entire county being 

 valued at over $14,000,000. In Canada the 

 yearly production is valued at about $3,000,000, 

 divided between Ontario and Quebec. The 

 glove-making industry has been little devel- 

 oped in Western Canada. 



Among the Greeks gloves were worn as a 

 protection to the hands when doing rough 

 work. The Romans used them as ornaments 

 and as a sign of rank. In the days of chiv- 

 alry knights often wore ladies' gloves fastened 

 to their helmets as signs of favor. Gloves were 

 also regarded as battle gages, to be thrown 

 down by a challenger and picked up by one 

 accepting the invitation to fight. To shake 

 hands while wearing a glove, and not to extend 

 the bare hand of fellowship, was in the days 

 158 



of knighthood regarded as an insult or chal- 

 lenge, as signifying a desire to meet in com- 

 bat. At the present day it is not regarded as 

 correct form to offer a gloved hand to be 

 shaken; when such an act is necessary an apol- 

 ogy should be offered. 



Consult Redmond's The Leather Glove Indus- 

 try; Beck's Gloves: Their Annals and Associa- 

 tions. 



GLOVER, JOHN (1732-1797), an American 

 Revolutionary soldier, one of the most promi- 

 nent men of his day, but now regrettably for- 

 gotten. He was a cobbler in Massachusetts in 

 1775, but rose to the rank of brigadier-general. 

 Glover was in charge of the retreat from Long 

 Island, was a brigade commander at White 

 Plains, had charge of the boats by which Wash- 

 ington crossed the Delaware, was responsible for 

 British prisoners on their march from Saratoga 

 to Cambridge, was a member of the court which 

 tried Major Andre and was officer of the day 

 when Andre was executed. 



GLOVER, RICHARD (1712-1785), an English 

 poet, practically self-taught, who was one of 

 the leading men of his day. He never attended 

 a University, but acquired a good knowledge of 

 Greek, and Grecian themes predominated in his 

 literary work. His greatest work was Leonidas, 

 an epic poem in blank verse. 



GLOVERSVILLE, gluv'erzvil, N. Y., a city 

 in Fulton County, in the east-central part of 

 the state, fifty miles northwest of Albany and 

 fifty miles east of Syracuse. It is on the 

 Fonda, Johnstown & Gloversville Railroad and 

 has an electric interurban line to Schenectady. 

 In 1910 the population was 20,690; in 1916 it 

 was 22,082, by Federal estimate. The area is 

 four square miles. 



Gloversville leads all other United States 

 cities in the manufacture of gloves, and to- 

 gether with Johnstown, a short distance south, 

 controls a large per cent of the entire produc- 

 tion of gloves in America. In addition to glove 

 and mitten-making, the city has large leather- 

 dressing plants, and manufactories of pocket- 

 books and leather novelties. Much of the work 

 is let out to home workers. The city is sit- 

 uated at the foot of the Adirondack Moun- 

 tains. It has a Federal building, erected at a 

 cost of $100,000; a state armory, Y. M. C. A. 

 building, Old Ladies' Home, Carnegie Library 

 and the Nathan Littauer Hospital. A tuber- 

 cular hospital, maintained by the county, is 

 three miles north of the city. 



Gloversville was settled about the time of 

 the War of Independence, and was known as 



