The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1902-10-20


by that you bought but it will look a
little more of the same proportion as
your headgear after it has gone
through the next machine, which is de-
signed to felt it, or knit its fur closer
together.
Take handful OF any loose fur and
squeeze it in your hand, and it will be-
come welded into a comparatively hard
little ball in time This is exactly the
sort of process that is gone through
now with the loose embryo of the der
by hat. 1t is bound up with three 9TH
ers of its kind usually and wrapped in
steaming cloth and run through a series
of rollers many times, at first gently
until its particles have knit rather
closely, and then more violently, until
at length, after q good deal of squeez-
ing in various shapes. the hat has been
felted down from q inches across the
bottom to II, and from 90 inches from
peak to mouth to 10. 1t is now COM
pact, closely knit, conical piece of felt,
and is ready for its first blocking.
A. machine on which it is fitted
stretches out its pointed crown to a
shape something more like that of the
crown of a finished hat. Another ma
chine turns uD it's lower edges into the
crude semblance of brim In this
condition the hat is popped into q dye
pot where it stays somewhere about
four hours and comes out of the color
by which it is to be known in the shop,
finally. From the dye kettle the hat
after being washed in hot water, goes
to another blocking machine, where it
is shaped once more, and then carried
to drying room where there is 4 tenn
perature of $40 or 10 all the time. In
twenty-four hours it is supposed to be
sufficiently dry and is taken out. The
rabbits transformed remains are drag
ged ruthlessly to another machine, the
'pouncer." The pouncer pounces on
the hat and smooths it off thoroughly
with its sandpaper, wheels, inside and
out. Then the hat goes into the shellaC
solution that makes your derby hat
stiff and is sent back to the drying
room again. When 1t is dry once more
it goes to the finishing room, where 1t is
steamed ard blocked by hand and iron
ed by hand and sandpapered again. It's
bri1n is trimmed off to the right width.
1t is sent to the trimming room, where
they put a binding on the brim, and a
band around it, and leather rim in
side, and a lining, too, perhaps. Then
it gets one more twist to make it
straight and plump, and is popped into
bandbox, and the handbook , into a
case, and there you are.
That is what happens to the rabbit
before he becomes the fall hat of felt
and it is only natural that you should
not have recognition in your new pur-
chase, for he has had a great deal tc
stand, what with the devil and the
blower and the pouncer clawing him
and mixing him up, and he has, OF
course, altered beyond recognition
Yet the body of your hat once used tC
| run along over plains and meadows
| and was very frisky uniformed prod,
uct' at that
| Very well, go along, then with your
new hat. if you have found the story
Of how it was made so improbable
One might have thought that you
would have liked to have known what
sort Of stuff you were wearing, but il
you find "felting" and ,"dyeing" anC
trimming as dull as all that why
go on-do what you have been f1dgetins
to do, and run home and appear in the
house with 1t on your head, wearing il
nonchalantly and unconsciously, sc
| that she may see it and exclaim overAits
glossy perfection. You told her the
other day that you thought it wasn't
humane to wear bird feathers on wo.
mans hats, didn't you? hat do you
suppose she would think of you if she
knew how you go on wearing on youl
head the relics of an inoffensive bunny
which never did you any harm ?-NeN
York Sun.