THE BATTLE OF THE BUCKLES.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XV, Issue X, 7 September 1895, Page 285

THE BATTLE OF THE BUCKLES.

The Pope has issued a propaganda concerning the absurd dress that adorned the feminine head some generations ago. A French law was recently enacted regarding corsets. In Chaucer’s time the English authorities took steps to prevent the extravagant wearing of gewgaws, and we ail know the nature of the famed Connecticut blue laws. Even as far back as the days of Paul the preacher, it was demanded that women's heads remain covered in public places, especially in church, but probably the most unique law ever enforced regarding feminine apparel related to buckles. It is the more interesting to air this bit of antique legality in view of the present astounding popularity of the offending article of jewellery. Here is the story : Strife was bitter against Athens and .Egea.-. War, or rather a series of petty fights, was the accepted attitude. In one such engagement the Athenians were triumphant. A small body of the soldiers marched into the little town of -Egeae, to be met by an infuriated mob of women, both matrons and maids. These members of the gentler sex unclasped the girdles from about their tunics and belaboured the incoming militia with their metal buckles, demanding as they did so the lives of brothers, husbands, and sons. The soldiers hesitated to return the attack ; but resistance of some sort was necessary, as the encounter was rapidly assuming proportions of a serious affray. So they fled down the streets into open arches and cellarways, relentlessly pursued by the enraged women, who used their long winding sashes as lassoes, and pitilessly

struck the flying enemy with the dangerous gold and silver ornaments. The soldiers were lashed and cut wherever an inch of flesh was unprotected and presented itself as a target for the markswomen. Finallv exhausted, the Grecian Amazons desisted, but not before the ‘ buckle fray ' had become so serious an affair that it became one of the sensations of the dav.

A hearing of the case was had before the judges. The women pleaded that all was fair in love and war, but the jury and men in general determined to take such convenient weapons out of feminine possession. Probably they were not only amazed, but alarmed at the ferocity of these female warriors, and resorted to the cloak of law in order to shield themselves from the possible equality of rivalship. At all events, a verdict was rendered forbidding .Egean women henceforth forever to use buckles as part of their attire. Their gowns should be fashioned, the judges decreed, in such a manner that these heretofore necessary ornaments would be omitted from the calculation. It was the bitterest judgment that could be passed on these beautiful women . It proclaimed to the world their unwomanliness, and held them up as examples at whom other women might point the finger of scorn. And they did, for the Athenian women induced the gold and silversmiths to mould the buckles of finer make than ever. These they wore with great pomp and pride to triumph over their male relatives’ opponents.