The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-06-30
THE PANAMA. HAT.
Truths About its Origin and Manufac-
 ture

Truths About It's Origin and Manufac-
 ture.
 With Panama hats in such unprece-
 dented demand as they are this season
 it is not surprising that much has been
 written concerning them.
 The plant from which is obtained the
 material of which the hats are made is
 commonly called the Panama Hat
 Palm, although botanists do not group it under the head of palms, classifying it under the name cyclantheceoe The botanical name of the particular spe- cies with which we are concerned is Carludovica palmata. The South American natives call it Palma de Pima. It is indigenous to parts of Ecuador, Colombia, Peru, Brazil and Central America.
 Right here it may be well to define certain terms that have been used by writers in connection with this subject, and which have appeared in advertise 1nents in the daily papers, without their meaning being clear.
 The word Jipijapa is really the name of an interior town in Ecuador, and the natives in that part of the country com mon1y speak of the Panama hat as the Jipijapa hat. Another word that has been frequently used is Manabi. This is the name of a province in Ec- uador, and Manabi hat is also synon- ymous with Panama hat. In Manabi province is the city of Monte Cristi, where some exceedingly fine hats come from.
 The expression paja loquilla has been oryo,, ao,,cJy t1cad bI como Ay1,itars a hp- ing the name of the plant, but it is the name of the straw obtained from the plant as any one who knows Spanish might readily have understood, since the word paja means straw.
 Many of our readers will be surprised to know that this straw is made from the flat leaf, and not from the stalk of the plant, for a casual glance at the ex- terior surface of a Panama hat would give the impression that the hat was woven from a fiber of cylindrical form. However, close scrutiny of the inner surface of the hat will disclose the fact that the fiber is not a cylinder.
 The method of preparing the straw is as follows: Young plants, not over four or five feet in height, are used for this purpose. Only the leaves that are young, stiff and in prime condition can be used. These are split into narrow strips by the native, who for this pur pose uses his finger nails But the strips are not separated at the stalk end. These punches are then bleached | in the sun Up to this point you still | have the flat straw, but what We call l the rounding, for want of a better l name, is accomplished by the deft-fin- ] gered native aided by the natural ten | dency of the strip to curl. The strip is , rolled from each of it's two edges to- ward its middle, and thus is formed | ready for plating into hat body, that l excellent straw with no raw edges and | which is deceptively like a cylinder.
 The French Panamas are made of this l same material, which is exported to Nancy Saar Union and other places in Europe where the French Panama hats are made.
 The statements that Panama hats are woven under water, or that the very fine ones are woven only by candle | light, are characterized as incorrect by T man who has all his life been engaged IS a first hand In the Panama hat trade, | made but has made Panama hats him self.
 It Is true that the hats are woven in the early morning hours when the at nosphere is damp, as the heat of the sun makes the fibre brittle and unfit for At night the hat is hung put in the open air where it absorbs the Jew, and is the next day again in con- 1 lition to be worked, This accounts for he great length of time required in the nat making, one of the very fine grades 'equiring upward of three and a half months to produce.
 The hat is woven on q block which is l leld between the kiees of the operator, llthough some of the very coarse hats ( re woven on the knee of the native too C