The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-07-01
LOOK AT The MANS HAT,
II Is Shown to Be an Index Of His
Character.
It's Use in Various SaIutetions-It
Expresses the Social Temperament
of the Meaning of the styles.
From the Washington Star.

Expresses the Social Temperament
of the Time-Meanihg of the Styles.
From theWashington Star.
There was decided touch of pathos in
the words that a young Washington club
man used the other day when he de
scribed what had befallen him a short
time before when he had run over to New
York for day or two on business. He
said he had gone into friends Office
down town, and that the first words said
to him were, where did you get it,"
Ordinarily, he would suppose that the in
quiry had reference to a certain reckless,
merry look that is supposed to belong to
the person who obviously has an incipient
flag on, but as the hour was too early
for that, he concluded that there was
something in his appearance a little out Of
the common run.
''Where did get what" he asked.
"Why, that hat" said his friend.
He was wearing fine straw hat with
ribbon of bright stripes about it.
Whats the matter with the hati" he
said
''Oh nothing; only how many others
have you seenin
He had not thought about it, but later,
as hC NdihGh hO6A III OdNl W IL. III lIobA''NA
that no other man wore a straw hat. and
when he went up on Fifth avenue in the
afternoon the same condition of affairs
prevailed He was almost alone in New
York with his straw hat Since he mad
no other hat with him no was compelled
to undergo considerable ridicule, which
he accepted philOsophically, merely re-
marking to everyone who asked about
the hat that straw hats were almost uni
versaly worn in Washington, and cOuse-
Quently must be the correct style, and
here he was doubtless right for New
York is now doing the very thing that it
laughed at the Washingtonian for doing a
week ago.
WHEN TO PUT or STRAW.
There is something about the straw
hat and when 10 put it on that is hard to
determine, but with us the general rule
seems to be to put it on as soon as the
weather makes it a comfortable thing to
wear whereas the New Workers, who are
less Independent than we are, use it not
when the weather demands it 50 much as
when a certain unwritten law declares it
is the style
The writer remembers very well how a
gentleman living in louisiana leaving
the city the first day Of April, iourneyed
northward in the same clothes that he
had worn in New Orleans. In all respects
he was not appropriately clad except
in the matter OF his hat, which was a
fine affair of white straw with good big
generous brim. 1t was a very comforta-
BILE thing when he started out and when
he reached Washington while it was
unique and had hardly any companions,
it still was merely 4 little in advance of
the season; but when he arrived in New
York and walked into the hotel where he
always stopped the clerk behind the
counter could not restrain himself but
burst out laughing.
ITS the hat" he exclaimed. cts the
hat! What on earth are you doing wear
ing straw hat in New York before the
middle Of June"
The southerner went out forthwith and
bought a black hat, and, now, whenever
he goes travelling in the spring of the
year, the first thing he thinks of is the
propriety of his nat.
BPoRrANCE OF THE HAT.
'What is the most important part of
mankind's APPAREL the writer once
asked of a social philosopher of great ex-
perience
"The hat, g" he answered without hest
tation, and he proceeded TO explain.
He said when you want to court mans
acquaintance you touch your hat; when
you want to snub him you let it alone
When you want to show reverence for
anything you take your hat off, when you
wish 10 show great pleasure at seeing q
friend you wave your hat to him as YOU
see him coming. When you are enrap-
tured by the words of a public speaker,
or when you become enthusiastic over q
great mans appearance, you toss your
hat in the air, and when you are reck-
lessly drunk you smash your hat. All
these things are due, according to this
philosopher, to the fact that nothing
makes or mars a mans appearance so
much as his hat. Take the most gentle
manly man on eartn and put derby hat
on him that is greenish, instead of
black, that has spots on it, that
has brim that is shiny as
though, as some one has said, it
was favorite promenade of snails. and
you will not suppose the wearer to be a
gentleman any longer. Similarly, you
may be much pleased with the appearance
of a man in parlor when he wears a
handsome long frock coat, but If you SEQ
him out-of-doors with that coat on and a
low-crowned felt hat instead of the stove
pipe silk hat, you will be pardoned if you
bow to him little coolly. But hat
really Is made by men to express the
social temperament of the time. In the
natty straw hat of the summer
people who are fond of outdoor pleas
ure, who do not intend, either, that
all the color and picturesqueness of
summer life should be appropriated
wholly Dy the falr sex. In the modern
derby there is the expression of bushes
activity, combined with good appearance
II says that once, 81 belonged TO race
that has not the time to press the shape
of its hats with its hands, and yet must
have a hat that will permit of graceful
bows The silk hat shows that, not
withstanding that we are all busy these
days and in a hurry, we nevertheless
have some Of the formality of the days
of our grandfathers left, and as an evil
dence there of, we have preserved our
grandfathers' hat, with some slight
modification
HATS IN PAST AGES.
Now, if anybody doubts this interpreta-
ton of hats, let him look at those that
were worn in the days of King James and
Charles + in England and contrast them
with the hats that Cromwell's men intro
duced. The first had tapping brims, and
these were usually pulled down on one
side and thrust up on the other side. They
were the hats of pleasure makers If you
should see one hanging on a wall you
would draw the face TO which it belonged
as a red one, ready to laugh and beaming
all manner of iollity. But the Cromwellian
hat was very different. The crown was
long and peaked like the solemn steeple of
a church and the broad brim was straight,
hard, unrelenting. 1t belonged TO pale,
serious face, with a solemn peaked beard.
80 1. g h.