The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1898-10-26
THIS is SURELY NEW.
A Theatsr Hat That Can Be Lowered or
Turned into a Fan.
Big and Good,
(From the New York sun.)

(From the New York SUM-
Women are standing three deep in
front of the window of a Twenty third
street millinery shop. Behind the wo-
men stand few men, and woe is writ
ten in their faces. The cause Of all this
excitement is new tangled theater
hat. Just as men are beginning to think
that the millennium of theater- going
has arrived, and that it isn't all a
dream too good to be true. along comes
this ingenious man milliner and invents
new kind of theater hat to spoil the
whole thing. So think the men.
The new hat is on this plan: 1t is a
gorgeous tower of flowers and furbe-
lows to start with A woman coming
into theater with such a creation on
her head would send a cold chill
through three rows. If the assembled
spectators next beheld her calmly take
off the upper stories of the hat, pull a
handle down out of the mass of finery
and proceed to utilize it as fan, they
would probably forget to finish their
chill. That is exactly the principle of
the new theater hat 1t is a double
back action combination.
The continuance will be patented in
this country, Great Britain and Europe.
Application has already been made. 1t
is undeniably an ingenious arrange
ment for it enables a person to take
the trimming off a hat or put it on at
pleasure. This makes it good thing
in packing hats, an operation which is
said to try unspeakably the souls of
women It is also utilized in another
clever way. For instance, there is a
black hat at the shop in question which
is first exhibited with a high effect of
black and white feathers at one side.
Snip! The tuft of feathers comes off
and big stiff bow of pink ribbon takes
its place. Presto, change! Off comes
the pink bow and on goes some spread
ing green wings. The crown of the hat
plays very much the same part as the
black skirt with which a woman wears
half a dozen different waists.
The burning question which is agitat-
ing the minds of the men and scores of
the women who stand and look at the
new theater hat in the window, is
whether it win be unadulterated joy to
sit behind even the foundation which
the woman keeps on her head. The COM
bination of fan and hat is truly clever,
but the hat itself, even minus the soar
ing fan trimming, does take up some
space. The inventor refers to Boston,
where the municipal officers held mill
linery exhibitions, sat in solemn judg-
rnent, and finally decided that women
might De dllOWeu TO wear IN the tnea-
ter head covering not to exceed three
inches in height, The New York mil
liner points to the fact that his hats
come under this limit. But the sad
eyed men outside remember that a
single pompon, or something else equal
ly inoffensiVe in itself, is able to shut
off the view of a whole stage if it gets
fidgety.
Plenty of women seem to be taken
with the idea, however, for a Sun re-
porter watched the sale of three of the
hats in the course of a comparatively
short time. A CLEAN of encouragement
came from the buyers comment how
ever One of them wanted the hat be-
cause She could change the trimming
to go with two utterly incompatible
costumes. The second one wanted hers
because she could have plumes on it
for fine weather and stiff quilts or rib
bon for foul. The third, it is to be
feared, had her minds eye on the thea
ter, where she will doubtless electrify
her neighbors by taking the trimming
off her hat and tanning herself with
it.
The origin of the hat is worth record