The Cairo daily bulletin. (Cairo, Ill.) 1870-1872, 1872-10-20
MISCELLANEOUS.
BONNETS.
/ERUBBABEIL.

Time brings about many changes,
and often strangely perverts the p imi
tive meaning Of many words, and in
pothiug is this made more manifest
than in the present and original mean
Ing of the word bonnet 1t was the
paG e formerly given TO mans head
gear, not to "a womans; or, 30 speak
more accurately, it wa, he name OF he
stuff of which the head gear was made
Guilaume de Nangis, writing about
the year 1900, says, "he never woie
the scarlet or green cloth, or bonnet
And in the "Romance Of William
Short the hero is spoken Of t.
wearing IA chaplet Of boouet' on his
head. Subsequently the name Of the
cloth was used to signify the cap Itself /,
and thus we find mention Of the bon
nets of priests, and those of mobiles,
which last were Of velvet, surrounded
by a coronet.
The bonnet wore by men in Eng
land in Henry wills time nay still
be seen on the heads of beef earers
(juF,hers or men who formerly waited
at 'able) of that kings court. Shake
speare used the word bonnet TO sig
nifty mans cap. lie makes Nolum-
MIA, the mother of Coriolanus, say to
tina. naughty patrician, 500 to them
with tn 5 bonnet in thy hand And
Hamlet says to Ozric, "Your bonnet
to its right use It's for the head. F"
Scott, in one of his war songs speaks
of 'all the blue bouuets de-, the
Scotch troops being over he border.
And to this day, among the Scotch,
the word bonnet means a man : cap, aud
crazy person is said - have IA bee in
bis bonnet In France, the word is
now used to signify lady's cap, aud
Go",,ei de aaii means "A night cap. II
it be required to name lady's bonnet,
the words chcpeoH and ,oq"e are used,
although toq"e signifies properly "A
lady's hat.
The first bonnets WON by ladies were
of immense size and were literally for
tiicdtions for the head, being worn 10
France in the last days Of the cigh
teenth century, at the close Of the first
revolution. During the middle ages
the caps worn by ladies res ,mbled the
feathers or ribbons. These hats were
sometimes made Of beaver, but gener-
ally of plated straw.
England, alone, of all European
countries, applied the word "bonnet' 20
the covering of Il lady's head. During
Queen Anne's reign, the ladies wore
gaycolored hoods, which were then
quite he rage. In William Ill s time
they wore towers Of hair covered with
lace caps, or ornamcn,ed with little
hats, But the hoods of Queen Anne
time We're revival of the pretty hood
bonnet known as the Mary Smar,
hood, which first appeared in the fiji,
teenlh century, though not till hun
rred years later did it receive the name
of the unfortunate princess who always
wore it. This was in reality a hool,
and not properly bonnet.
In Charles lis reign something like
the modern bonnet was used, with deep
strings and mantilla. Our older read.
ers are familiar by remembrance, AMI
our younger ones by illustrations, of
the "coal'scuttle" bonnets worn by the
English ladies at the beginning of the
present century, which were so-called
from their resemblance, when worn, to
that article of furniture inverted.
When lady's head was enveloped in
one Of these fearful appendages, it was
impossible to see her profile, and very