Evening journal., 1909-04-07
Editorial
Opinion
Hats For Women.

Hats For Women.
New York Evening Sun.
A hundred years or so ago. under
the Directory, the gowns Of the wo-
men were as grotesque as their hats
To-day, in a cyclic revival Of sad
manifestation, at the period 0f we
may say so) OF the telephone book. wo-
mems gowns, though outlandlsh, trail
some distance after their startling
prototypes and do not begin 10 hole
their own in effrontery with the hats
which deform the heads and faces Of
American womankind, whose comline5s
and charm we have always held in
pretty high esteem.
IL is all very well to say that moth
ing can cuench the charm OF female
loveliness, and that he more grotesque
the hat the more piquant the face
under II. That hats are so audavious
that they fill the eye and benumb the
mind, and the faces underneath are
thrown Into an envious penumhra.
They are so big as TO be frankly a
nuisance in the public conveyances and
In any assembly room. To afford
any secure foundation upon which this
monster among hats may rest a most
unpleasant mass Of store hair is piled
upon the woman's head and the whole
barbarous structure is driven through
with mere supposedly ornamental
spikes than would furnish forth the
coiffures OF a dozen Lombardy peas
ants. The hidsQus upholstery of allen
hair porjects far on each side of the
head and has a most formidable over
hang astern, and when the enormous
hat itself is firmly rivetted upon the
capillary mattress. the girls face, if
anybody chance to look at Il. is dis
covered to 10 thrown far out of its
proper relation in the scheme Of decor
ation-if not out of the picture entirely
IL is showed against the top of the
frame and is clearly there only on
sufferance.
There are many variations in the
detail of shapes, but the motif is to be
recognized in all OF them-the inverted
receptacle. Some are like peach baskets
with the simple severity of form
which marks that useful pannier,
others are but a circumferential droop-
ing from that piteous idiocy the hat
once called for the MERRY Widow" 1t
were a stupidity TO say that any single
form is most in favor. but it is true
that large number of them seem to
be modelled upon the deep charger ia
which Miss Mary Garden in the char
acter of Salome bore the detached cap
ital of the reluctant prophet whom she
adored with a frenetic insistence upon
having her own way.
Besides these inverted chargers there
are hats like woodboxes, coal-scuttles,
40 ffc Ir,g Il
bowls. wash basins. and infants bath
tubs. cat-baskets, dog-baskets and lay
cites, and besides these 'lmary forms.
there are deformities and minor-scale
variations upon each of them, hats
like the oaravels Of Columbus. high Of
stern and blunt of bow. hats like aero.
planes. hats like skyscrapers hats like
leaning towers, top-heavy parallelepi-
pedal hats like motor buses, such
hanging gardens as Babylon could not
have imagined, hats to alright the
soul.
These various awful things are made
of braid. net, Foundation" wood
pulp. silk satin, lace. haircloth, leath-
or. and apparently some are made of
horn and some of sheet iron, and they
are adorned with every vegetable
growth ia leaf. blossom and fruit
which the gardner knows. and some
additional freaks which the milliner-
greater msgician than Burbank-has
created. Great masses Of fur, fins.
scales, lace. chiffons, feathers, ribbons,
all sorts OF wild flower eccentricities.
simple choux and Observation-Disclosures
forms of great intricacy and tendency
to dilapidation, together with anything
else which may inadvertently have
been forgotten. are employed to decor
ate the exterior and interior OF these
objects which the ladies are pleased to
call their hats. this year.
one effect OF all this is TO create the