Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1890-05-16
FLANNELETTES.
A SILK HAT FOR A DOLLAR.
How Young Men on Small Salaries Manage
to Get NobOy Headgear.

How Young Men on Small Salaries Manage
to Get Nobby Headgear.
"How many silk hats do you get in the course
Of season, anyhow asked one clerk of an
other in the Office of a big insurance COM
pany the other day as he picked up his asso-
ciate's shiny "stove pipe" and glanced inside.
Here's an imported hat from Paris, if the
stamp don't lie; two or three weeks ago you
had London hat and shortly be core that
you were sporting one of the fashionable
makes here. You must spend haN your salary
on hats"
The fellow clerk smiled and looked about
for moment. Twill you keep mum if let
you into good thingf he asked, and the
promise was quickly given
"Well, lost a silk hat bet on the last cleo
ton and one pay day l ruefully put away IS
and suggested to my successful friend that
we go over ON Broadway and get that hat.
Broadway said he. Not much. You just
come with me- So he marched me up to
Chatham street, into a narrow doorway in
rickety old building, up dark flight of stairs,
and ushered me into dingy loft Great
heaps Of high hats ran up to the ceiling along
one side of the room and the other side was
were tough enough looking, but there were
shelves OF silk hats that were just shiny
and as tony looking as any you ever saw in a
Broadway window.
"A number of men stripped to their under
shirts perspired as they worked away on hats
in all stages of development, for red hot
stove in the center Of the room kept the tenn
perature pretty high. My friend had evil
IDENTIFY been there before, and was cordially
greeted by one of the men who stepped for
ward
"'This gentleman wants to buy me a silk
hat he explained, and in two minutes he
was fitted with dandy looking bit of head
GEAR, the lining stamped with very English
looking trade mark, with lion and shield
and that sort of thing, surrounded by the
handsomely engraved name of u firm and the
address in Piccadilly. don't know whether
there is any such firm in existence, but what's
the oddsi The hat was just as glossy as any
you ever saw on Fifth avenue, and rather
envied my friend as | asked the man how
much | should pay.
"'Three dollars, said he.
"Well, was prepared TO find the price
lower than on Broadway thought So, or
possibly S. would be the figure. But So
knocked me silly. Without asking any ques-
]
figure and there I was with two elegant
silk hats instead of one and 81 to the good.
'My friend explained the mystery TO me
after we left the place. 1t seems that the
majority of the 'bloods around town, after
wearing their expensive headgear for brief
period, which does them very little harm ex-
cept as TO the lining, leave them with the
fashionable dealers. The protector OF the in
dustry we had just observed has an arrange
ment with these men to purchase all the hats
that are turned into them at fifty cents
apiece. 1t doesn't cost him much more than
fifty cents more to put them in first rate
shape again. SO you see he can make nice
thing out of them at 50.
But here's further wrinkle in the thing
You don't need to spend as much as 50 even,
when you want new silk hat These
Chatham street folks are quite accommodate
ing, by the way, and urge you To come in
and have your 50 hat ironed up whenever it
gets mussed, free of cost | had mine ironed
a couple of times, and one day, after getting
it thoroughly soaked and demoralized in a