Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1891-01-16

cept during his vacation days at Marsh
field, and the pattern Of his hat is still
preserved. It was wide and fiat in tho
brim, with moderately high crown and
but little bell in the shnpo. WebstcI's
hat was OF silk, the material now used,
and tho style was first shown in hat
made by Townsend in London In 1886.
Ho utilized tho silk plush Which had
been invented In Franco, covering with
1t body Of muslin stiffcncd with shcllac
varnish. The silk hat speedily drove out
the beaver from general use, although
tho Inter hos not been set aside yet, md
Is sometimes seen in our streets worn by
very old man who 10 conservative or
very young man who is loud.
The charge of tho Light Brigaio dur.
ing that war which Louie Napoleon, or
rather the Duke dc Morny, provoked, in
order to consolidate the Second Empire,
was made by men, many of whom when
Mt home wore hats which have fixed tho
nickname of ''stovcpipes" on high hats
for the generation now passing away.
Perfectly straight up aud down, high
and perfectly latin the brim, they re-
scmblcd nothing so much rs section of
sheet iron pipe. But the young men who
left the drawing rooms and rushed to
India rs fast as transport or troopship
could carry them when the news OF tho
mutiny set the civilized world IN flame,
wore hats which were almost curiously
unlike those of 1854. Brims that rolled
until they touched tho band, and bells
that ovcrshadowed the brims, with long
front and rear pieces, were the style then.
In some Of the old prints of the relief Of
Lucknow hats are seen on the heads of
rs gallcnt men as ever bowed. Havelock
wore cap with alluttcring cape of linen,
still called by his name, hanging down
behind TO protect the neck.
The Civil War in this country came at a
time when the "stovcpipc" hat was once
moro popular. The style seems odd rs
one looks at the old pictures of Lincoln
and Seward and Stanton and Chase,
those giants who carried on the Govern
mcnt during that period of trial. Lin
coin wore hat which was rather high,
with straight brim and crown. At the
beginning of the war, when all the days
of trial were before him, opd when the
great news came of peace ut last, the hat
was the same. Twice during the four
years the fashion had changed, but wo
may we'll believe that the war President
Ind no time to notice the style. Davis,
of the Confcderacy, wears soft felt, in
many of the pictures which are extant Of
him at the time. And when the Ger
man army corps drove the French before
them and girdlcd Paris rs with an ever
tightening belt of steel tho mode had
run once more to the extreme bell with
the rolled brim.
Steadily since its first introduction tile
high hat has made its way, until now It
holds place from which it cannot be
lightly shaken. 1t is the "dress hat"
and more than that, it is the respectable
hat. Solid men like it, aud, oddly
enough, fashionable men ore not willing
to give it up. Many judges of hcadgear
hold that it is, after all, the best hat in
the world, and declare that it will never
be spqnanted. But while the man Of
the town admircs tho "silk," his liking
for it is as nothing to the devotion felt
by the ragaInutlin for the "plug hat"