The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-03-06
Hats or No Hatss-That is the Guess
ton Now.


Editor Of the Morning News: AS a cru
sade against hats has met with such
favor in Minnesota, perhaps the words
of an actor who looked out through the
''peep-hole" after the hats had been
dotted may carry some weight in other
cities. A reporter called Mr. De Belle
ville's attention to the big hat crusade
that was being carried on. He looked
out through the peephole in the curtain
at the audience-it was during the mat
inee
"Ah," he said, "that is it. They have
their hats off. l knew the house was
different in some way. And how much
better they look. Why a woman is not
dressed her best when her hair is covered.
1t is the hight of absurdity-this wearing
of hats in a warm theater for two or
three hours. Ladies don't do it abroad,
nor in the best theaters in the east.
| That is what gives one the impression
of beauty in houses that have not half
the pretensions of those in the west.
The audience looks like a lot of people
enjoying themselves at their ease, and
not like crowd that had rushed in and
was about to run away presently. The
prettiest assemblage in the world is "a
matinee house in a pretty theater where
the ladies have given over their head
gear"
In New Orleans, years ago, found
that it was as much the custom to have
hairdreSSer, or the hair dressed, for
the evening as 1t 1t is In Europe, and
sits in a seat where a covering on the
head obstructs the view of those be-
hind The only place in Germany where
one can. wear bonnet, never hat, is in
a private box, or in the most expensive
circle of the German theaters, where
the seats are not on level. In the seats
below there is a law which compels every
head to be uncovered. Small bonnets are
usually worn by elderly ladies in the
circle / frequented, or black lace, draped
as women of high society wear in COM
pany. 1 think the large hat, with its
waving plumes, is as much out of place
in church as in a place of amusement.
Unhappily, the milliners who never know
the customs of good society, which we
think we are following, make our sweet
women and girls do some things that are
not becoming. 1t will be a blessed day
when our young girls and mothers can be
as free to enjoy good music and the drama
as the women of Germany can do in all
towns of even comparatively small proper
say, a young girl of twenty, and enjoy a
fine play or opera and be back in her own
house at $3.50; and all without the expense
and hurry of dress and escort! Her maid
or man servant is the only attendant to
the cloak room, where the young lady
meets the attendant to return to her
house. Going to places of amusement, and
being under obligations to a gentleman
for that pleasure would entail the COM
panionShip of a chaperone, a duena, in
fact. I hardly think the custom is known
in Europe. Pleasures of the social circle
are not limited to tete-a-tete, but young
girls are protected, as they should be, by
women of age and experience. When that
reform comes, we shall have made great
strides in progress, and our young women
will be free in the broad sense. Then the
tongue of scandal will not be able to wag,
and many thoughtless, giddy girl will
be protected from its insidious poison.
Cosmopolite Matron.
Thomasville March 3, 1896