Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1901-04-05
THE MEXICAN AND HIS HAT.
why He Spends So Much Upon His
Cherished Headgenr.

why He Spends So Much Upon His
Cherished Headgenr.
"While on train in Mexico on my
last trip to the country of the Aztecs
a young American lady, upon whose
astonished gaze was flashed for the
first time the fearfully and wonder
fully made sugar-loaf Mexican hat,
which is the first out-of-the-ordinary
object that greets the tourists eyes
after he crosses the Rio Grande, asked
me why Mexican men of all classes
spent so much money upon the cover
ing for their heads and appeared to
take such evident pride in the great
-brimmed, high conicalcrowned
shelter from the tropical heat and
burning SUM-" said New York hat
drummer to a Star reporter.
when the American soldiers de-
parted from Cuba for Porto Rico they
wore the regulation army slouch hat,
with a deep crease in the centre.
When they returned. heroes and vet
Grams, they wore the same regulation
hat, but with the peak of the crown
pulled up to a sharp point, pyramid
like, in gallant, desperate attempt to
initiate the Spanish hat, which had
caught their fancy and had struck
them hard. and their wives. sweet
hearts and the public gazed awe
stricken and reverentially but help
lessly at the new style thus created
here.
And then the hat makers took 1t UP
for the ladies and this accounts for
the present rakish style of ladies' mill
tary gray hats with mannish crowns.
THE main reason why the Spaniard
and the Mexican devote so much at
tention, time and money to the hat is
because it is to some extent made tho
symbol of their standing in the COM
munity, and because it was the gram
dees of Spain who of all others at
court possessed the privilege of sitting
or standing in the presence of their
sovereign with their hats on while the
rest of the court uncovered.
Naturally the hat became an object
of respect and veneration. and the
grandees We'd with one another in the
size of their brain covering, the fine
ness and costliness of it's texture and
the rich gold and silver ornaments pro-
fusely worked thereon The populace,
according to their respective means
and position in life, emulated the
example of the grandees, and thus, as
time advanced, the big hat became the
distinctive feature of the dress of the
Spaniard, as the mantilla corresponded
on the head of the senorita and the
sonora.
The time was when a Mexican
placed his hat and his horse before all
his worldly possessions, spending as
much as $500 to $1,000 for a gold
trimmed. embroidered hat and as
much more for his heavy saddle and
bride, all trimmed with silver. and
this passion is strong today The
higher classes of Mexicans have aban-
doned the sugar-loaf hat for city wear
for the European style, as they have
adopted long ago our ideas on clothes, I
though every Mexican gentlemen has
his native costume with its gaudly
embroidered short Jacket and faring
trousers and hat to match, to be worn
when the occasion demands.
THE other classes cling to the
sugar-loaf hat. made principally of
straw of fiber peculiar to the coun-
try, or of felt. ornamented with gold
and silver cord, according to the
means of the wearer, or perfectly
plain and chean. They look odd to
us, these MeXicans, in their white,
loose shirts and trousers, standing
idly about in their sunlit, adobe cities,
as the train speeds on to the capital.
and a picturesque lot they truly are"
Washington Star.