The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1908-03-29
SIX SILK HATS ONYHE AVENUE
AND ONLY SIX-A SIGN or THE
TOPPER'S DOOM.
FASHION Study on Firth Avenue-Only Six
SILK Hats Among the Thousands OF
Men Met Between Twentysnth street
and the PlaLa-The Wearers OF The six.

and the PlaLa-The WeareFS OF The SIX,
The time has come when proper notice
should be taken Of a Gocial, not TO say a
geological, revolution which is manifest
on the sidewalks Of Fifth avenue.
II would be a mistake not 70 admit the
number and the gravity Of social revolu-
tior6 whose outward and visible signs first
address themselves 10 delighted beholders
on the sidewalks Of Fifth avenue. There
you may see the signs Of birth, marriage,
divorce, death. debts and detectives; there
the wandering barbarian first observed
the revolution in women's dress and de-
meanor; and there-but this suggests our
subject,
The silk hat Is doomed and dying in
New York, be that as II may on Piccadilly.
That ancient thoroughfare expresses the
conservatism Of Great Britain, but Fifth
avenue announces the independence Of
America. and on Fifth avenue a declaration
Of independence f~orninst the silk hat has
been announced.
A walk along the sunny aide Of the
avenue from Twenty-ifth street to the
IldLd ubNlObfu W OIbdIN VAIN eyes Dul W.
nlk hats being worn. Blythe way, the prone
made on Fifth avenue not 80 many years
ago that one needs TO be ancient as the hills
10 recall II began at Washington square.
Later the beginning was moved up to Four
teenth street, and then in comparatively
recent years the stroll began at Twenty
third street.
Gen. B~ingham's traffic squad has deter
mined the matter now: All %southbound
traffic is switched to the west at Twenty
fifth street, and it makes a barrier past
which the idle stroller does not 90 on his
southwark lap. And yet it is not fair to re-
fer to these amply occupied men and women
as oilers; they are not only not idle, but
their business is perhaps the most impor-
tant which occupies any Of their hours.
That daily tour OF. the avenue between
the Plaza on the north and the monument,
all too inadequate to celebrate the virtues
and victories Of Gen. Worth, on the south,
amounts to a social function with a re-
spectable number Of very well dressed
people. There they have their exercise;
there they do their health restoring deep
breathing; there they meet friends and
acquaintance and exchange gossip; along
that pavement they encounter convenient
doorways into which to sidestep for a cup
Of tea, Not idle.
And as to the shadiness Of the west side
Of Fifth avenue. II comes later in the
afternoon than on Broadway, where the
sweet voiced N. P. Willis discovered and
wrote Of it many years ago-or was il gentle
Henry Bunner Of a later generStion3 Just
why there should be a difference in the
shading Of the avenue and Of Broadway,
both north and south running thorough
fares, has to do with a mixture Of astronomy
and the early surveying of Manhattan
Island, concerning which this story re-
lates not, for, as has been suggested, it
relates to the disappearing silk hat.
Six u the number. In a leisurely stroll
Of a mile and a half up Fifth avenue in the
crowded hour one overtakes or encounters
several thousand people. Two-thirds Of
them, more or less, are men. 80 the least
mathematical may discover at once that in
relation to such a number six is a negli-
gible quantity. And yet not negligible,
because they must be considered.
The first silk lid observed crowned the
well cropped gray head Of a New Yorker,
Otherwise his attire was as youthful in cut
and color almost as that Of any under
graduate seen during the stroll.
There we're small differences in the wear
ing Of his dress which could be observed,
his sharply creased trousers we're not turned
up at the bottom. but rested in sedate full
extension over what he might call CATERS,
and his son would refer TO as spats. The
silk hat was Of the style Of tomorrow. II
offered no apologies for being, and the
long skirted cutaway coat its owner wore
offered no apologies for not being a frook
coat. The wearer wal modern in all re-
spects except as 10 his hat. In his youth he
may have had political ambitions or other
troubles which he sought to promote or as
slage by acquiring the silk hat habit, and,
having acquired Il. and possibly prospered
under and because Of it. he chung to it out Of
gratitude.
Thesecond Of the six Wasa strangerin New
York. a tall. handsome, amiable looking man
with broad whiskbroom-like white whiskers,
denoting him as OF the northern tier OF coun-
ties. On his native heath the owner may be
a c county Judge, or possibly the mar who for
the love Of It takes care Of his party politics
in his district.
He comes 10 New York once in ten years,
and be bought that silk hat on the trip before
the last. He wore it all unconscious that
thousands Of others were not so topped. as
they we're that happy day when he made his
last purchase Of a silk hat, His frock coat
vas Of broadcloth, and being unbuttoned its
ample skirts were the plaything Of the gentle
breezes as were his chin appendages.
Following him we're hundreds, possibly
thousands. Of men with dicers and disks
and lids Of many oolors and shapes, although
the billycock tightly held it's own bya large
majority, But at last, heaving down the
avenue with the fluctuations Of a canel's
head, came the third silk topper.
Here, indeed, wa something to marvel
at. This was a tng little topper, from
Piccadilly, in the neighborhood of Bond
street, 1t was borne aloft with some mani
fest difficulty by a slight little figure whose
further apparel deserves noting.
From a high double collar a wildly green
and narrow silk tie was suspended, giving
a glimpse on either side Of a shirt front of
modified chocolate In color. A grayish
vaistcoat adorned with a woven figure Of
darker gray was cut rather high and came
down quite a surprising distance below the
belt line.
1t vas possible to observe this because
the invisible gray frook coat was unbut-