The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1902-07-13

| hat fad.
| An imported idea, it has been washed
| across the ocean from dear old Lun-
non" and has waited male ideas of
financial propriety to the winds.
/ Who would have believed that the
world-old criticse of feminine vanity
could nave been carried away by such
| a crazy idea as to be led into paying
S175 cold dollars for an ugly looking
beast of a. thing approximating to any
of the models which our artist has so
graphically picturedr
That there is more fun in selling
PanamaS than in wearing them is APP
parent from the. experiences of one of
| the slickest statesmen that has ever
sold goods in New York.
He describes it as fun to sell Pan
anna hats-abodt the same grade Of
fun as the purchasers get misery, after
they have worn some of them for
7 aWh1fe-and reported on their pur-
chases. He says. THE fellows that
| look like married men are the ones who
assume hangdog air. The reckless
| looking chaps are the young fellows
| who are perhaps trying to dope it how
they're going to- duck their. board bills
| for week or SO in order to make good,
I their investment in Panamas.
There's something odd about the
| way the hapkertng for q Panama
| clutches a raan,F5Dnce he begins to
| by no means s1ressy, and who can pass
the inviting array OF things in tailors,s
and haberdasheFs windows without
ever being tempted.
Sensation i Satisfying One. t.
| Possibly II is because a man with
a sure enough Panama on his head ex-
| per1ences satisfying sensation of GEN
ufneness. all the way through him. One
fellow who aarnessin the other day,
/ wearing a new imitation Panama, for
which he claimed to have paid 81 or SIS,
said he couldn't stand it any Longer
! ana bought a $50 Panama without be-
| ing troubled ko-d0 it.
- simply &caul&n't stand the gaff
| with this thing on said he, pointing
| to his imitation hat. It's a good
enough looking lid, and all that; but
| the sassy way that it's rubbered at by
chumps- that have genuine Panamas
! on their heads gets me going
ON a recent morning, while stand
ing IN the front part of the store, I
caught plimpse of a big, good-natur-
1 ed looking man, about forty, wearing
q. Derby hat, who was standing in
| front of a showcase filled with Pana-
mas that were marked $25. I felt
! sorry 1Qf. that man by the time I'd
| studied him for a good fifteen minutes,
for came. pretty near knowing what
! was going on in his mind.
He would gaze long and earnestly
at the display of hats in the case and
then shake his head and mutter some
4 thing to himself and walk out to the
curb. For long while he would stand,
| gaze long and SeaEnestly at the gutter.
4 shaking his head, and then he would,
/ square his shoulders, throwing his
chest out and his head back, and take
up a quick march straight for the
! door Of the store
4 Before he'd get hall. across the side
walk an expression Of, INDIGESTION would
i creep into his eyes. and his chest
/ would sink in, his head& go down, and
he'd stop at the showcase and gaze
i longlhglyAat the $25 hats some more.
Repeats Three or Four Times.
HE repeated this performance three
or four times during the FIFTEEN or
! twenty minutes that I watched him.,
! but the last time he got his nerve
right, and actually did come into the
| store, almost running in his determin-
alton to stay with his final idea.
| 4. L, watching him intentIy, was fear
ing that he would crawfish, and so 1
| had one of those $25 Pananas before
him almost before he had asked for it.
| He put 1t on and it fitted him perfectly.
becoming him very nicely. He gazed
| hungrlly at the effect in the glass, but
L could see that he was beginning to
| cave, for all that -.
"How much did you say?" he ask
| ed me to give him time to think it all
| over again, and he dug into his trous-
| ers pockets and brought out a fair
| sized roll of bills, probably his weeks
| pay.
| WELL" said he 81 guess I'll and
| then a sudden comrnotion oyercane
| him. Why blame my fool hide, she'd
break my burned neck!' he exclaimed.
pulling the hat off his head and Law
/ a
| She would sure! Give me an ordinary
round straw hat for about a couple of
| dollars, and Let her go at that. l guess
| l won't lose a happy home for a hat,
bad as I'd like that topping piece
| L sold hin,'a round straw hat for a
| couple OF dollars, and he wore it out of,
| the. store, but the way he looked back
at those Panamas gave. me "a jar.
! Wanted One of the Best. IL
| Several weeks ago a rough looking
chap, exhaling the unmistakabIe
aroma of the stables, slouched in and
said that he reckoned THAT he'd take a
! look at a Panama hat or so. After taxi
Ing look at him [ figured out that the
man really didn't understand the sig
n1ficance <of the term Panama hat, and
| when I showed him one at SIS and
1 mentioned the price, / was prepared
to see him execute a getaway.
| But he didn't do anything of the
sort. He took the SIS hat out of nv
hands and looked it over in a cursory
sort of way and then handed3it back to
me with sniff. ,.....s a..
That's a bxSn looking tent, said
he Let's take a peek at the real
thing --.- = '''4e'' '5~
"a good deal surprised, passed him
t over ~one~of the $50 kind.
Nix ne said, handing it back to
me. tNothin' doin' on that shell, neeth-
er. I want t. git one jest like Billy Oil
yer, my boss, got here the other day d.
Billy Oliver, of course, is a we'll
known owner of thoroughbred horses,
and he had bought a SIS Panama hat
about a week before.
do you know how much that hat of
Mr.. divers cost?' I asked the man.
"'You kin bet y'r blfnkers I dot
set the boss jes' seventy-five O. them
round ones that he copied when his
old Roysterer boss win the other day.
1 got some O that Roysterer duff my
self, and it's me frs one jes' like TIL old
| when I Showed him a SIS hat for his
| size he clapped it over his left ear,
| paid for it oyt of q wad as big as a
tobacco jar, and sailed out as jaunty
as you pleases
Sensation a Satisfying One.
(which reminds me of a pun a hot
coon sport worked off on me one Tues
day morning last. He was about as
caloric a proposition in the way of a
| dressed-up black man as ever L saw
away from f2alxe walk.
"'Ah wantsB tub look ovuh yo' alPs
straw hats said he when he pranced
in and f1ickedf bit of imaginary dust
| l. ~