The Van Buren press., 1896-12-26
HATS AND HEADACHE.
Average Weight of Woman's heao ooV-
ering and Its Effect OH the BRAIN.


/. z,o,aca weioht of Womans Head Cow
ering and It's Effect OH the Brain.
With all it's other sins the fashionable
bio hat is charged with being the cause
OF an endless number OF headaches.
ut is owing to its weight eX-
claimed a doctor. Hats that press
down on the forehead with Il mass OF
weight in front are particularly to
blame. It's hard to get a woman TO
admit that her hat is too heavy, butlt is
so. When you consider that woman
brain, on the average, weighs about Al
ounces, or four ounces less than
mans. and that she puts on a hat
weighing half as much as the BRAIN
while the mans hat weighs hardly one
quarter what his wife's hat does, 1t S IN
teresting. l think sometimes that
probably the less a woman's BRAN
weighs the more does the hat she puts
on it
With a pair of scales a number OF
millinery establishments were inspect
ed. In big Sixth avenue millinery de-
partment, where imported hats are the
rule and few head coverings under ten
dollars are to be found the heaviest
hats that could lie found were brought
cut The heaviest MAS white felt
braid, sailor shape, with Il pyramid
shaped mass of flowers made to rest on
the corner of the brow and cushion OF
violets under the brim. 1t weighed
Z ounces easily. A big hat that had an
eight-inch brim and was heavily loaded
apparently with jet rope edge and
Jet around the crown only tipped eight
ounces. The department manager
smiled as he said:
All is not jet that shines this year.
1t is Il substitute to reduce the weight
of the hats"
A hat, all of ehinchilla fur, that
looked heavy enough to prove a load
weighed only eight ounces. \ little
steel bonnet, the size of a hand, weighed
nine ounces. The average weight of
half a dozen big hats of the worst the
alter class was only eight ounces. Over
on Fifth avenue, in a shop from which
the best-dressed women get the most
exclusive fashions, the manager smiled.
Its nonsense, l am sure, about
headaches and big hats she said.
"Why, we use every art to decrease the
weight of these big hats. We even use
willow for foundations. We often
change and alter hats with Just that in
view until the largest hats will be
lighter than the smaller ones. Here is
one. for instance"
And she selected an immense black
hat in enc Of the new French shapes.
1t lowered Il foot in the air, with a
mass of white plumes. About the
crown was a twist of white tulle and
some velvet. The hat measured at least
foot one way and considerably more
from back to front. On any but a
large head it would have looked top
heavy. On the scales it weighed only a
scant four ounces and the manager of
the place smiled triumphantly. Only
one hat in The entire shop weighed ID
ounces. One weighed 12, but appar-
emily the bigger the hat and price the
less it weighed Prices of such creations
never drop. They rise.
Down in Grand street everything ran
the other way. A real Grand street hat,
properly trimmed, with the requisite
stylish number of wings and ornaments
of various kinds--a hat as big as the
four-Ounce Fifth avenue hat-hardly
weighed less than IA ounces. 1t was
easy TO find them weighing 10 and 20
ounces Something most magnifi-
cent" which cost $40, was the champion
heavyweight at "a ounces, and was war
ranted to give any but a giantess or q
woman with a constitution of iron a
chronic headache Y World