The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-06-12

l US longest diameter, ana was or Sulll-
 cient dimensions completely to extin-
 guish the chairman of the meeting as
 far as the chin when he elected to try
 it on. Following Dan" OConnell in
 the size of headgear comes Dr. Thomas { Chalmers, the eminent theologian and
 one of the few Britons who have been
 elected members of the French Insti-
 ute; and following him w. M. Thack-
 cray, who was q short head, in sport
 ing parlance, in front of MT. Gladstone,
 Charles Dickens and Robert Burns,
 whose head was never graced by tall
 hat, for the poet died exactly six
 months before the happening of the
 stirring events that marked the occa-
 sion of the birth of the tall hat.
 The painstaking correspondent of
 the Grand Old Man did not conclude
 his statistical record of headpieces
 with Burns, but extended it so far as
 to record the fact that our King Ed
 ward VII requires No head cover
 ing, his nephew of Germany a hat
 bearing the mystic figure of six and
 seven eighths, the late Dean Stanley a
 six and three-fourths tile" and the Duke of Cornwall and York topper"
 of the proportions represented by the
 size six and eighths--information
 that the original recipient found as he
 mentioned when acknowledging the
 gift, full of interest" Large as some
 of these mighty head coverings appear,
 they would, if placed side by side with
 couple of straw hats made in 1899
 and last year at Luton, appear almost | insignificant In the one case the | crown of the straw erection measured about twelve inches high, and across
 the brim the measurement was six and
 one-half feet; the hat, which required | the services of three experienced men l to block and iron 1t, contained no fewer l than two hundred yards of jumbo pleat
 one inch wide, and the hat box in which it travelled to Newcastle (Aus- 1 tralia) measured seven feet square and was even larger for it measured l over seven feet across the brim, twen- l ty-one feet round the brim and three | feet round the crown. Moreover, 1t | contained two hundred and fifty yards | of dark blue and white jumbo pleat, | and no fewer than four men of vast experience were occupied in it's manu- | fracture. Wearing this the largest hat in the world even Lablanche, the great singer, who, overcome With emotion, once entered the royal presence wear
 ing q hat on his head and carrying one in his hand, could not have become oblivious to it's presence. It will be recalled by some old playgoers that Queen Victoria, desrous perhaps of putting the great basso of the century
 and her old tutor at his ease, laugh ingly remarked. Monsieur Lablanche, you have got one hat too many the singer wittily and promptly replied
 Pardon, your majesty, there are two hats too many for man who has lost his head"
 Tn the early days of the last century the topper of the period was styled a castor" a title that gave rise to the retort uttered by the first Baron Chelmsford, when coming away from a reception with Lord Cockburn and Sir Frederick Pollock. Said Cockburn, Chief Justice II can't find my castor Then try Pollocks,' rejoined the Lord | Chancellor When the century closed M. Carolus Duran styled the unpopu- lar but only head covering worn by po- | lite male society in the town "the last | word of the horrible;" but notwith- | standing the vituperations of the ar tistic and the slang of the period, the | hat continues on its career, undeterred by the hard things said about it. The reason of this lies In the startling fact that the topper" though most easily [ damaged, Is one of the most indestruc- tibie of things, fact that ought to tn m parliament who like F Powell in 1897, after delivering crushing speech, likewise crush their top hats by sitting on them, or have them crushed by oth- CTS This was the fortune of some un- fortunate wight few sessions ago. the culprit being Lord Stanley, who, inad- vertently passing between the speaker and the member addressing him, was assailed with such shouts of "Order, order' that he hastily sat down, alas! on an immaculate silk hat gracing the bench in his immediate vicinity.
 Granting the indestructibility of silk hats If placed in the hands of experi- enced renovators and duly steamed and reshelaeked, it may be asked what be- comes of all those hats that are not transported to Australia or Africa, to be proudly donned by the artless say age? The natives have been seen off the west coast of the latter continent swimming out to incoming steamers each man wearing a renovated silk hat still wrapped in all the glory of the white tissue paper in which 1t left it's native Bethnal Green, Whitechapel or Bermondsey, the homes of the renova- tors. The answer to this question , could be supplied perhaps in bated breath by many-they are collected. It seems perhaps incredible that any man should care to turn his house into a museum of Shocking bad hats" but 1t ! is done none the less, as is evidenced by the startling prices that some fa- nous hats attain; such, for instance, as the sum, three hundred pounds in { gold paid for the Mexican sombrero . to General Grant while he was in that country in 1882. This now rests in the National Museum at Washington. where, if we remember rightly. reposes the headgear worn by |