The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1890-05-16
THE ~"srovEPIPE" HAT.
Centennial OF the Plug Franklin In
troSIuced II to pnris.

Centennial OF the Plug "-Franklin In-
troduced II to Paris.
The matters OF Europe have just cele-
brated the centennial Of the '~'stovepipe,"
says the Atlanta Journal.
The ~'stovcpipe" has proved, next TO
the ''spiketail' coat, which alone ranks
with Il In hideousness, the most profitable
device of the men who make our gear.
These two freaks OF fashion, these dear
monstrosities that deluded society clinRs
To, are the most curious products OF evo-
luton. They tend to destroy the law Of
1.-THE survival of the fittest'' that governs
all human and natural progress. How
the first generation of fashionables that
wore either Of them could get their W
consent 70 appear in public In u guise
has always been IN unsolved mystery.
We wear them for no better reason than
because our fathers did.
The evolution of the st~ovepipc, to come
back To the delectable and SPLEEN lid beavcr
or silk tile, is somewhat the more curious
and interesting from the fact that il has
an American origin. The beaver, of
course, had long been known i'm many
shapes, some even more hideous than the
stovepipc.
Hamict's father, the murdered Dane,
Wllttt Nv t"s ~ VI ttlt
moon, had his beaver up" though il
wasn't the kind Of q beaver We are famil-
lar with. Other famous characters had
their beavers, but IL wat reserved for our
sober. common-sensed republican to in
troducc the hideous stovepipe.
At the tiMe Of Franklin's visit to France
the people of that country were rabidly re-
publican. The sage wore "a hat of impos-
sible classification. The matters were
struck with il, called it republican, imi-
tated il, put copies of il in the windows,
and soon countless heads in that hot-bed
of Instruction, Paris, were wearing the
Republican" title.
Tho tradition of its origin chung vaguely
10 il. In the early part OF this century only
n republican head could wear the stove
pipe. The obscquious adhercnts of Ia
eifcte monarchies of Europe wore soft
Men who wanted To overturn existing in
situations stuck "A s~tsvepipc on their heads
as an advertisement to the world of their
revolutionary ideas. Ii was as definite IA
symbol Of rcpublicanism as the cockadc
was of liberalism in Frame oil of "nuliil-
cation" in South Carolina.
by 1870, however. the monarchists at
fccted the hard and uncomfortable stove
pipe and rcpublicanism had TO hide
its head under the soft SLOUGH hat. In
Europe to-day "thc apparel" especially
the hat, " oft denotes the man." A soft
NAT upon u poiiticlan menu nv once sets
him down as a radical, or republican, or
Of s~ocialistic proclivities. On the other
hand, the man who boxes up his aristo-
cratic brains in n hat as tall, hard, and
miserable as Goth's iron helmet may be
safely jotted down for an imperialist,
monachist, and as "a believer in Ciesarism.
Bradlaugh, that broad and uncompro-
missing radical, and William O'Brien are
almost the only members of the British
parliament that dare or care to challenge
aristocratic criticism by wearing soft
hats.
The repulsive ugliness and uncomfort-
ablcness of the stovepipe, m perhaps
its almost rigid unalterableness OF shape,
are the only things that endear ii TO fash
ion u serve To perpetuate il. We can,
even IL fashionable, be comfortable in our
clothes were IL not for this hideous relic
of the Quakcrism and republicanism-
though present symbol of aristocracy-the
stovcpipc hat.