The weekly intelligencer., 1892-03-26
CHApTER III.

But why was Jos hua Merritt passing
his whole life hunting after d hat?
This man of many eccentricities. us has
been said, was an Englishman, from
Liverpool, one of those harmless mono
maniacs who are not met with solely in
the United Kingdom, for who has not
fallen in with them on the banks of
the Loire, the Elbe, the Danube and
the Schelde, as well as in the region
washed by the Thames, the Clyde or
the Tweed? His eccentric tastes as a
collector had made the wealthy Joshua
Merritt well-known man IN Lancas-
ter and adjoining counties.
Joshua Merritt had already laid most
of the globe under requisition in his
search after valuable additions to his
collection of hats, and now that he had
for the time being at least, by persona,
efforts, or by means of agents and cor
respondents, exhausted the stocks of
Europe, Asia and Africa, and, to de-
gree, those of the two Americas and
Oceanica, the thought had come to him
of pushing his searches into the far
West of the United States territory.
He had n special reason for so doing-a
reason that would not have seemed
very weighty to any one else, utwhich
to him was very important. His studies
of the aborigines had made known to
him the fact that the North American
Indian had a great love, nay, almost a
passion for the discarded silk hats of
their more civilized brethren, no matter
in what state of dilapidation they might
be: that very year crop of these silk
hats was harvested in the East and
shipped to this Western market
But Independent of this general no.
ton the great collector had something
special in view. To tell the truth, he
was oppressed by fixed idea, n day
nightmare, which threatened to make
complete his partial insanity. Some
way or other only known to himself he
had come upon the trace of certain
hat which would add great fame to his
collection. What it was, who had
made it and whether it had decked the
head of prince, burgher or peasant
Joshua had thus far kept to
himself. Suffice Il to say that
after a long and to dious
hunt, during which he had followed
up dozen trails, only to be thrown off
the scent in the end, he had struck the
right one and had run his game to
cover. To speak plainly, he was now
convinced that his hat decked the head
of some Indian chief in the far West,
and he was determined to buy it at
whatever price the red man might sci
upon 1t or steal it If the chief refused to
sell.
Although Gin-Ghi took care not tc
! quicken his movements in the least
! for why shonld he when his masters
hands were SO much bigger and strong
er than his-yet everything was in read
mess at the appointed hour, and the
strangely assorted pair were soon NOV
| ing westward at the rate of almost {
| mile minute. Gin-Ghi awoke aftel
they had been under way for six hours
but glance at his masters face warneC
him that 1t would be dangerous Il
rouse Master Josh from his flt of deer
thought, SO heIdropped off to sleeI
again.
But the time has come when the
reader can be no longer tritied with
| He is entitled to know something abou
this mysterious silk hat. which with it,
limp and tapping brim beckonet
Joshua Merritt on and ever onward
toward the setting sun. This hat one,
rested upon an imperial brow, for I
was once the property of Napoleon Ill.
Emperor of the French. Why, ex
| claims the astonished reader, tina
would not be such a wonderful addi
| ton to the Merritt museum, for surel,
during the nineteen years of th'
| Emperor's regin it would not hav'
been very difficult matter to obtain &
silk hat once worn by him. Paris
must be full of them! One mo
ment, impatient reader, this was a par
ticular silk hat worn by Napoleon III
| while he was still merely Prince Louis
1t sheltered his head the morning of hi
unfortunate attempt TO seize the empir'
at Strasburg. He had it on his hea1
when he escaped to America. Ill
wore it during his brief sojourn in New
York city, when he had lodgings il
East Houston street, and upon the ev,
of his return to Europe at the call o
his dying mother, Queen Hortense, h
gave IL to his friend, Mr.. Smith! i
there any wonder that Joshua Merit
yearned to possess this historical sill
hat given by prince, soon " becom
an emperor, to Mr.. Smith? But wha
Mr.. Smith? Who was Mr.. Smith
What did Mr.. Smith do with the hat?
ITO BE CONTINUED.