The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1897-01-19
Audience at One of Chicago's
Big Theaters
Starts a Cyclone Demonstration
Against WOmen's Hats.
EVERY HAT CAME OFF
Except That Worn by One
Defiant Woman
And Those on the Women in
the Boxes.

Chicago, Jan. 19-Hundreds of ex-
cited and indignant theater goers took
the high hat question into their own
hands last night at the Columbia thea
ter by Kisses and yells that amounted
to a tumult.
They compelled every woman who
was present at the first night of Sou
sa's lei CAPTAIN" to sit bareheaded
through the performance-all but those
in the boxes and one woman in the par
Quet, VINO, IN spite of the yellS and cat
calls that came down at her from the
balcony, kept her widebrimmed head
gear on all through the opera
The noisy demonstration began be-
fore the curtain went up for the first
act, and continued until after the opera
mad begun, drowning out the music and
for a few minutes threatening to break
up the performance altogether.
Finally it was quoted by the ushers
when there were practically no more
hats to come off, and the play went on
Smoothly. The audience, however. was
noisy all evening, and the excitement
did not subside till after the people were
outside the play house.
The theater was packed when the
trouble began from the top row of the
gallery to the front row of the orches-
ira, and, but for the noise. the audi
ence appeared highly respectable.
Nobody knows who started the dem
OnStratiOn. From the suddenness of
the Outburst it might have suggested
itself to a hundred persons at the same
instant 1t began with ye1lS of. Hats
off, that We're interspersed with Kisses
and grOans as some of the women
showed a disposition not to obey. When
the Kisses came the hats in the parquet
and dress circle went off as If they had
been caught by a gale from behind.
/ Every woman who entered the thea
ter with her hat on made nervous
grab at the hat pins as soon as she di-
Vined the import of the demonstration
Never did hats come off so quickly
from feminine heads as they did for
the five minutes before the perform
aisle with hair disOrdered from the
quick withdrawal of hat pins and with
faces more red than the plush CPhol-
stery of the seats.
In the center of the parquet a pretty
young woman with a hat topped by a
black pompon sat through il all. blush
ing scarlet, but without making n move
toward her hat. The gallery gods
and the balcony youths yelled and hiss
ed atsf1er, but she did not budge-tilI
till the curtains went up and the lights
went down. Then she took off her hat
In the fourth row from the front OF
the parquet another woman with a
wide-brimmed hat. trimmed with ducks
feathers, sat with face fiery red ali
through the performance She was the
only woman in the theater, outside of a
box, who wore a hat throughout
Persons in the gallery and balcony
who could not see what was going on
down below left their seats and Went
forward to the railing and hung far
over the edge while they Joined in the
manned there through the performance,
as if to make sure no woman put her
hat again.
Finally the ushers got the people part
~ quieted. But it is the general under
standing that the occasion was a red
better incident in the anti-high hat
movement in Chicago.
Why" said one of the women in the
audience, who had gone to the theater
under a small hanging garden of roses.
night shade and holly hooks, I had for
gotten all about that mean old high hat
ordinance or whatever It iS,and 1 walk
ed down the aisle wondering what all
the noise in the gallery was about. Then
they began to shout dreadfully, and
am so afraid of fire that L thought there
might be a fire in the house, but there
wasn't 1t was only my hat
Il looked around as L got to my seat.
and, glanced up at the gallery Just as a
horrid boy leaned over the railing and
shrieked, Duck that haiti Just think
of it, Calling that lovely bird of para
disc on my hat a duck
L though he was very rude, but
didn't propose to take off my hat just
for disgusting boy. and 1 sat down in
my chair determined that I would keep
my hat on. And then all those persons
way up there in nat dreadful place
leaned over the railing and yelled, That
hat, the hat, duck the h2t!
Il was never so angry in my life
looked around to see why the manager
didn't send UP the police or somebody
to stop them from shouting when I saw
that almost every woman in the house
had her hat off, and that other women
who were coming in were being shout
ed at just as much as was. And then
remembered about that odioCs hat
law, and well, what else counld 1 do
1 took my hat Off
Another of the women in the audi
ence said:
The managers need never be afraid
now of being fined for having high hats
in their theaters- Since the gallery has
| Joined hands with the aldermen and en-
| listed in the high hat crusade the war
! is over. The high hat is doomed WO-
men have laughed at the misery of the
| men who sat behind their hats and
sneered at the polite hints of managers
| to please remove their hats, but they
| can't ignore the gallery. The gallery
| will not be ignored. And when the gods
| begin to shout Take 'em off, you may
| be sure the high hats are going TO come
/ right Off
Mana ger Davis of the Columbia is
| disposed to regard the demonstration as
good evidence that public sentiment is
/ now firmly opposed to the theater hat
/