The daily morning journal and courier., 1905-12-12
OLD SILK HATS TO ACTORS.

With Care Will Last a Century-In Each Hat Twenty-nine Pieces. l Actors use up the old silk hats"
 said the natter. Actors" asked the listener
 1 Actors" said the natter, pausing in 1 the set of lifting a chunk of iron out
 of the stove and dropping it in the hol- 1 low flatiron he carried. "Actors-I
 mean variety actors, of course. They
 need them in their business. Haven't you ever wandered where all the old
 silk hats come from when you've seen
 the comedians kicking each others 1 tiles all over the stage, up the street here? Well, such places as mine sup ply them.
 Tt takes a good many years to wear
 out a silk hat. With proper care
 they'll last to be a hundred years old. 1 Of course. before that time the silk l will turn red on top, where it is ex-
 posed to the sun, but that redness can ] be overcome for 8 time. You can make over silk hat so long as the ! frame holds together. I had one here a while ago that I could see had been done over several times before. But
 when I openedait I found written un- 1 derneath the lining: This is the sixth
 time this hat has been made over.'
 wrote underneath that: This is the ! seventh and signed it.
 i've got one here now that Is at i least forty years old. Ut was made by
 some firm with a store on Westminster l street, so long ago that I never heard i the name before; and I've been around ! here some years, too. It is beaver i hat of the fashion before silk hats , came in. This hat was made on felt
 body-the silk hat of to-day Is made on
 a gossamer body, shellacked. It is a
 lighter hat, but do not know that it will wear so long.
 l There are twenty-nine pieces in a i silk hat. They are the brim. which is i in four pieces; the silk lining, in two;
 the foundation, in two; the gossamer 1 tips between--there are two of these | also; the two coverings for the side
 crown, the two for the tips, the three
 pieces of plush, the three rubbers, the underbrlrn; one piece; the two pieces of
 the band and binding, the leather, one piece; the bow braid one piece; the la- | bel, one piece; the eyelets, two of
 them; the sticker, or piece of court plaster, joining the sweatband together
 in the back.
 1 Cotton cloth is the foundation of the
 silk hat It is stlffened with shellac cut with ammonia and hot water. The cloth is cut up in strips. cut on the
 bias, and then stretched on the block 1 fYN Fhi1lrt1neSnS fhfntynncc 1 ing stretched and permitted to dry be- | fore another is put on. The lining is
 put in first, the cloth being stretched
 over that, and then, after it has been permitted to dry, it is ironed on the
 block, powdered gum demar being
 dusted on to prevent the iron from
 sticking to the cloth soaked in shellac.
 The block is in five pieces, the center,
 the two sides and the two ends, which are removed in this order when the
 cloth body has dried in shape. The
 leading makers get out their hats on
 the block they adopt for the style of
 the season, and block makers then im-
 itate this block, until any natter may
 buy from a New York of Boston block
 maker the seasons latesy block at a l reasonable Dr1ce.
 | The block is then removed from the
 shellac cloth shell, and a doffer is in-
 serted, to stretch the hat to the re-
 quired size, the block being a trif1e
 small. This doffer is simply a. felt
 shape, which fits closely to the block,
 and thus puts a thickness of felt be- ] tween the hat and the block. The hat : ie dnf ;e 1 ed this melting the shellac and per-
 mitting the cloth shell to adapt itself
 to the changed conditions. After the ironing it is covered with a coat of shellac varnish, for which the natter
 now has to pay five dollars a quart. l When it is dry again the silk plush is put on with a hot iron, steamed on, in 1 fact. | This plush comes in rolls like any other and is sold by the yard. It Is cut I in strips seven inches wide for the crown and two and one-half inches for the brim. The top-piece having been
 cut out, it is sewed to the crown piece, and is then put on the cloth shell. Once on, the plush nap is turned back at the joint, cut off and stuck on,
 and then brushed back which makes a joining so neat that 1t is almost impos- | sible to detect
 The hat is put on potance block and potanced, which means simply I that it is hung on 8 round block of
 cloth wood which rests on an elbow ] iron at the hatter's bench and is fin- ! ished over again, after having already been finished with hot iron and plen-
 ty of elbow grease. The edge of the
 brim is curled. the hat is trimmed,
 bound, the leather sweatband is insert
 ed, and then it is ironed again until It
 shines like glass. After that 1t is
 ready to wear.
 l It may be made over whenever the
 change in the modes is great enough to
 make this seem desirable, and when it
 gets too dirty it may be washed by the
 natter, and thus thoroughly cleaned. 1 When he makes it over he strips the
 plush from the frame and starts at the