The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1903-12-25
THE HAT IN MEXICO.
and Dignitaries Instead of
SOmbrerOs.

Among all well-bred people great at
tention is paid to the hat of the masculine
visitor That emblem of grandeeship,
as Richard Ford called it, is taken at
once and carefully placed on chair quite
rs il it were person, says Modern Mex
leo. 1t must be treated with respect. A
table is also proper place for it, but a
chair better
Especially is the top hat distinguished
in etiquette: it implies that the wearel
Is real senior, a true caballero, and it is
honored with careful treatment. See
that it is allowed to repose on chair
safe from casual knocks or jars. In COM
mon parlance. the top hat is una CHS
terra" a facetious word, and, speaking
seriously, it is ''un sombrero de copa," or
ode copa alta 1t is an emblem of social
rank, and lawyers often wear it from
morning till night.
The sombrero de paja, or straw hat.
may be of many degrees of fineness.
Sometimes it has gold or silver cord,
and is worn by we'll to do rancheros OF
great haciendados on proper occasions.
Women on horseback in the country, and
formerly in the city, wore handsome
sombreros The sombrero of felt, with
its ornaments, may cost anywhere from
$40 to $1,000. tits the gala hat for horse
back on days of fiestas, and in the coun-
try regions is affected by the prosperous.
Remember that the hat, in any form, is
something to respect 1t is taken off as
sign of regard and Difference, or of mere
courtesy.
The sombrero calanes is the Andalus-
Ian hat of low crown and broad brim, the
hat of the bullfighter on the street., where
he receives the homage of the admiring
populace, especially of the small boy.
1t has it's epochs of coming into quite gen.
eral use, and is far more picturesque
than the staidand prim derby. The latter
hat is much affected by the city youth
of Mexico, but it is foreign, alien and an
exotic. 1t is ridiculous when worn on
horseback under the ardent sun of Mex
leo or Andalusia.
In old times, Mexicans, as well as
Spaniards of social rank, wore the cooked
hat, immortalized in Alarcon's story OF
the "Sombrero de Tres Picos.' The three
cornered hat, properly speaking, affected
by people in'times agone was called the
''sombrero de tres candles"
Boys of the lower classes wear cheap
straw sombreros to school, and the mar
vel is that they ever distinguish them,
for they are as much alike as peas in a
pod.
But to return to our muttons, so to
say: the hat as a symbol of grandeeship.
1t is nowadays the tall hat, the topper
the silk hat, stovepipe, or what you will.
"Gobernadores" wear it, senators and
deputies and lawyers, of course, though
in Mexican cities the younger lawyers
affect jaunty straw hats in warm wealth
err and often derbys.
The grandees of the first class of Spain
have the privilege Of remaining covered
in the presence of their sovereign, and
the other day the young King Alfonso,
receiving party of noblemen of high
degree, who approached him uncovered,
said, after a moment: Cover yourselves,
senores," which is the ancient etiquette.
Thus the hat plays in Spanish tradition
and actual life ceremonial part differ
ing from usage in Anglo-Saxon coun-
tries.