Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1882-09-20

II @h"EhhNAN LA INV
travels in America | have been at times
fairly overwhelmed by the contemplation
of some of the head-coverings have seen
and more especially among the supple
mentary" classes, if may call them so
of the American people. Following the
course of the empire westward, found
that, afler leaving the mulatto states.
passed through the red Indian to the Chi.
| nese on the Pacific. and then. going south
traversed the Mexican till came TO the
negro and through him. got back again T.
| the mulato. As n matter of ethnolouical
geography this division of the states was
sufficiently interesting, but an additional
interest accrued from looking at is from
the nat standpoint. As general rule, il
| may he accepted that hats are made only
for white men. and that the supplementary
classes wear them after they have been
| thrown away,and that the negro, as a gcn-
eral thing, only arrives at u hat after it has
been thrown away several times. Nobody
hut negro cherishes very old
hat
The Chinaman. it may he, buys a
second band hat, and after ironing the
brim out fiat, wears it with decenev. A
red Indian be9s or steals one, and. after
cutting IL hole in the crown, stuifs the
orilicc with feathers and walks round the
camp with much complacency. The mul.
alto, having found one lying about, washes
it, ties Il blue ribbon round it and wears
it on Sunday. But the negro meets with
| the old hat and straitway puts it on to as
| much of his head as it will cover. He
does not try TO improve it or to ornament
it. When he first saw it lying IN the road
it was "an ole hat" but once his it be
comes II new possession, and never grows
any older until he finds another. And in
America, scattered up and down the states
there is II prodigious number of hats ly-
ing about. especially in the west, and most
especially in the mining districts. 1t seems
to be n point of honor among miners
not to wear secondhand hats, for if they
choose they certainly need never buy one.
Perhaps they suspect old hats to be only
some stratagem of the enemy to get into a
quarrel over claim, either to it or to
something else. At any rate, whatever
the reason they never touch them any
more than coyote will touch dead
Mexican. (The Mexican, by the way, eats
so much red pepper when alive that the
coyote will not eat him when dead. So
they say.) The "colored man." however,
does not frequent mines, or he would
reveI in new old hat every day. He
prefers civilization, and the result, in the
matter of head covering is very striking.
His appreciation of the independence OF
American citizenship leads him ino the
most complete recklessness. There is
nothing that he will not put on the top of
his head-providing there is only enough
of it to assure him that it once formed
part of hat or hat, and that he can
balance the fragment on his head In
Texas and Arkansas his originality eXcels
itself-he turns anything into hat. Isaw
negro sitting on wood pile, near Mar
shall, with the lid of luncheon basket on
his head and tied round his chin with red
ribbon. He was a simple person, for he
accepted the remarks Of my companions
in the kindiest spirit possible and told us
that he had another hat" at home This
was only his working day hat. The In
dian has very marked tastes for he prefers
the ''stove pipe" hat, if without crown so
much the better. Next to this is gray felt
the light color having superior facilities
of adornement. He begs for the metal
ornaments used rs trade marks on cakes
of chewing tobacco, and trims the crown
with them, while he adorns the brm with
fringes of his own contrivance. The labels
off sauce bottles make chaste ornament
for hats of this kind The Chinaman is II
pronounced utl itarian. He understands,
moreover, the real odjec of u hat in II hot
climate, and does not hesitate therefore 1T
any width of brim. When working in the
sun, as saw them in gangs on the Southern
Pacific line, he wears construction that
looks something like laundry basket
Speaking roughly, hats increase in brim rs
security to life and property diminish. 1t
was II man without Il hat that stabbed
Buckingham. This is true all the world
over, whether we are among the wide
urbaned Kookas in India, the flap hated
tbanditti of Italy or the COW boys Of Arizo,
ma and Texas. The outrageous brim Of
the hat of the Arizona COW boy,-"lhe
white Indian, as he is called, and is indeed
often more terrible to meet than the red
is the ilag,as it were. of his INSTRUMENTATION
to laws. He is no respecter of limits, and
expresses n general abhorrence of dsci-
pline by the license which he takes in
hats. A narrow brim savors to him of Il
cramping civilization. He refuses to be
cribbed up under ordinary head gear.
Nothing is too wide for him, Il he could
he would put prairie on his head
But leaving minor matters about hats for
larger ones, what wonderful amount of
mans responsibility rests an his hat! To
try the experiment, lose your hat over the
bridge on windy day and walk a few
blocks without one. All the rest of your
clothes will not save you from the person
alitcs OF the juvenile public, nor the un-
concealed ridlcule of the more adult. 1t
is no use 10 stop and remind the street
boys that Julius Cesar never wore hat
If you put up your umbrella you only
make matters worse. The man who has
lost his hat is the general joke of the mo-
ment.-ObSerUdtion Of an Euglish Iracet,
T.