The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-09-12
SYMBOLISM OF THE HAT.

!
 The Dignity and the Privileges it Rep resents.
 l If the coronation has any lesson to
 impress on the ordinary individual, it is
 that so gayly rhymed by Oliver Wen
 dell Holmes:
 Wear a good hat The secret of your | looks
 Dwells with the beaver in Canadian 1 brooks,
 l Virtue may flourish on an old cravat,
 But man and nature scorn the shocking hat
 For the hat proclaims the man or wo-
 man. Modern delineators of character ! scrutinize the palms of the hands, but ! from time immemorial the headgear has constituted a sign for all who walk | abroad to read. The head is covered,
 not for shelter from the weather but as
 sign of status. just as gloves bespeak
 gentility. because their wear originally testified to freedom from manual work. Clothing for the body is necessity, but
 the covering of the head is one of the
 superfiuities ordained by civilization, l for the hair is a natural thatch, and
 even centuries of artificial 'tiles'' have
 not yet made man bald headed anil
 mal On the contrary, he often yearns to go about with no other covering for | his head than the natural one of his
 own locks. submitting with i'll grace to the conventions and the tyranny offthe topper. Were the hat merely shield l from sun and rain it would not exist in 1 It's present form, but all headgear, from
 the crown to the cricket cap, is essen
 tially symbolic, and only incidentally 1 protective.
 The crown is the hat in it's earliest form. and originated as the fiIiet or
 band round the temples to keep the long | hair from falling over the face. Gar | lands of flowers and wreaths of leaves were so used, and marked their wearer
 as less savage than his contemporaries,
 or signalized some great event in his life, such as marriage, or victory in
 combat In time these wreaths as- 1 sumed distinctive characters, and be- 1 trayed the quality of the person at glance. The poet bound his hair with l laurel. and the victorious warrior with | bay leaves. The king naturally chose a 1 fillet of gold. and hence the evolution of 1 the crown, this bandeau conception be- | ing clearly seen in the Byzantine crown i of Hungary. The covering of the head was thus sign of superiority and ad- vertisement of status, which fact is still l preserved in the reverential removing of hats in church and the presence of tho Ina1 fn pI fbr- the headgear bespeaks rank, and cour- tesy requires that In the presence of su- perors man should acknowledge his own inferiority by abasing himself-by removing the insignia of his own rank,
 which is his hat. In Spain the dignity of grandeeship, as also that of cardi-
 nal, is called a hat, for the king origi-
 nally conferred it by addressing the person whom he wished to honor with the word "cubraos' (cover yourself). This constituted declaration that the,
 king regarded the nobleman as his equal. The order of grandees was divi- ded into three classes. First, those who | covered themselves at once before ad- dressing the king: second, grandees
 who covered themselves after speaking
 to his majesty, but before they received his answer; and third, those who could only assume their hats when they had
 made their last obeisance and retired into the crowd of courtiers. At the present day the formal Spanish gentry show great courtesy to the hat of vis- itor. He is not allowed to hold it in his , hand nor put it on the ground, for it is taken by the punctilious don and cush- toned like crown on the best sofa or chair in the room.
 The same symbolism will mark the
 ceremony in Westminster Abbey The king is but first among his equals, and by assuming their coronets at the mo- ment his majesty receives the crown the nobles of Britain declare themselves his
 peers. Subsequently they signify their service to the king by removing their
 coronets before doing homage to him.
 The judges, likewise, proclaim their equality with the sovereign by covering themselves in his presence. The fa-
 nous black coif or cap of cloth" is not
 reserved for the passing of sentence of death only, but is part of the judicial garb, signifying the judges dignity and