The citizen. (Frederick City, Md.) 1895-1923, 1896-12-18
HATS AND HEADACHE.
Average Weight of tVOnan's Head Gov
ering and Its Eject the Brain.


Average Weight of S9onan's Head Gov.
ering and ats Eject on the Erain.
With all its other sins Tie fash iona bic
big hat is charged with being the cause
OF an endless number of headaches.
1T is owing to its weight" ex
claimed doctor. Hats that press
down on the forehead with mass of
weight in front are particularly to
blame. It's hard to get "a woman 10
admit that her hat is too heavy, but it is
so. When you consider that a woman's
brain, on the average, weighs about A.
ounces, or four ounces less than a
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, it's in
teresting. / think sometimes that
probably the less woman's brain
weighs the more does the hat she puts
on it,"
With a pair of scales number of
millinery establishments were inspect
ed. In big Sixth avenue millipery de-
partment, where imported hats are the
rule and few head coverings under ten
dollars are to be found, the heaviest
hats that could be found were brought
out. The heaviest was a white felt
braid, sailor shape, with pyramid
shaped mass of flowers made to rest on
the corner of the brow and a cushion of
violets under the brim. 1t weighed
12 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 a substitute to reduce the weight
of the hats
hat, all of chinchila fur, that
looked heavy enough to prove load
weighed only eight ounces. A little
steel bonnet, the size of hand. weighed
nine ounces. The average weight of
half 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, | 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
lew until the largest hats will he
lighter than the smaller ones. Here is
one, for instance"
And she selected an immense black
hat in one of the new French shapes.
=
mass of white plumes. About the
crown was twist of white tuIle and
some velvet. The hat measured at least
a foot one way and considerably more
from back to front. On any but
large head it would have looked top
heavy. On the scales it weighed only
scant four ounces and the manager of
the place smiled triumphantly. Only
one hat in the entire shop weighed IA
ounces. One weighed IL. 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 giantess or
woman with constitution of iron
chronic headache.-N Y. World