Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1891-10-22

VAT - - III NNltLGlOiNs
How the French Quarter Covers Bare
Heads All Over the Union.
New York furnishes headgear for
nearly nine-tenths of the American
heads that wear caps. Perhaps the in
habitants of this town think they have
seen a good many yachting caps within
the past few weeks, but as matter of
fact the vogue of the yachting cap has
only just begun. 1t came from Europe,
took the Atlantic coast by storm and is
now sweeping westward towards the
Pacific. Thousands of girls that never
saw navigable water will presently be
looking saucily forth from beneath
this sailor headgear. Comparatively
few caps of any sort are sold in the
east. Nearly all of them 60 beyond
the Alleghanies and few are sent as
far as the Sandwich islands
In that oldest, nest-lilxe part of New
York, the French quarter, two or three
thousand men and girls make annually
five million dollars worth of caps ex-
elusive of the one million dollars worth
made by the furriers of that region.
At least one million dozen caps are
turned out in this quarter every year.
As to styles there are nearly five hun
dred varieties OF yachting caps alone
there are something like two dozen
kinds, if, indeed, two score is not nearer
the correct number. A few leading
styles, however, persist with little or
no change from year to year. The
west constantly demands n cheap cap
NTH E,rarvr
some cap for girls the rage. Such caps
sell by the hundred thousand dozen.
A hint comes from Pari, ard In few
weeks the new caps swarm in every
street.
Cap-makers are a fairly well paid
class of workmen. The trade is minute
ly snb-divided One cuts the material,
another sews the peak, another blocks
the crown, another sews the sides and
still another presses the seams, while
the small finishing touches, such as
cord aud tassel, are given to girls.
Work is done by the piece and cap
makers earn from fifty cents
20 two dollars per dozen caps The
most sl1illful men in busy seasons earn
as high as thirty dollars a week and
occasionally men have been known to
earn fifty dollars per week. Wages,
however, may run down to ten
dollars a week or less The
season for making winter caps be-
gins in April and ends in October Then
comes a lull and in November begins
the season for making summer caps
About three-quarters Of the work is
done between April and October
Materials are as varied as forms.
Silks, velvets and oashmeres are some.
Among the most expensive caps are
those made for yachtsmen and naval
officers. The bullion embroidery adds
considerably to the cost of such
caps. Much of this is imported, but
some of it is made by girls, who work
together in small shops or at home,
earning from six to fourteen dollars
per week. 1t is one of the prettiest Of
the many dainty trades that flourish in
the French quarter.
The fur cap trade is conferred in the
French quarter. This warm work is
now at its height Sealslzin caps are
less popular than they once were, but
some thousands of them are annually
made in this city. They are made from
portions of skin too small to be used In
the best sacques The trade is highly
sub-divided, as is the case of the other
cap-making industry. 1t requires q
knowledge of furs, and many of those
engaged in the business are foreigners
Much of the trade is carried on
in comparatively small shops such
as are usual in the French quarter.
Often the costliest and most beautiful
goods are produced in shabby little
shops, where one would expect to find
no more important industry than that
of the cobbleF.
The cap trade is largely in the hands
of jobbers who buy from the manu-
facturers and distribute the goods
Every considerable city west OF Pitts
burgh has large jobbing houses that
deal in caps, and the widest Rocky
mountain hunter often wears cap
sent him through jobber and retailer
from the cap manufactures Of the
French quarter The taste Of western
folk does not easily change, and this
fact gives to the cap trade certain
steadiness that it would not have were
it entirely dependent upon the vagaries
of young people on the Atlantic coast.
You may see by the goods in the cap
houses of this town every variety Of
cap, along with the ber-
eta of the priest the shovel hat Of the
bishop and the mortar-board of the
student Curiously enough,
there is little or no demand for the odd
headgear that reaches this town upon
the heads of newly arrived immigrants,
Foreign caps and all the outlandish
of attire that thus come in
rapidly disappear. The italian women
cling to their gay kerchiefs, but men
and women of other nationalities make
haste to conform to the customs of the
country. In a few western states,
where there are large colonies of for
signers, especially Germans, living in
Of their own, pecuharities
IF dress survive, and for these people
he cap makers design distinctive head
year. 1t is not generally known, by
The way, that the new yachting cap is
IN adaptation of the German military
zap. made familiar in many portraits Of
Y. World.