Fashion: To Keep Your Hand In

Murderers and motorcyclists are so mad about gloves that they wear them the whole year round. Others, less smitten, don them only in the winter, for warmth, or on the job (doormen, surgeons, morticians, ushers), to impress a boss (secretarial applicants who cannot type), keep up appearances (debutantes and chauffeurs), curry favor (prospective brides brought home to tea with prospective mothers-in-law). Once considered standard everyday attire, and the only way to get a decent duel going, nowadays no one but a grandmother likes to wear gloves.

Well-Bred Intentions. Though they come in the most...