Evening capital and Maryland gazette. (Annapolis, Md.) 1910-1922, 1920-05-08
A HAT THAT NEVER
GOES OUT OF STYLE,
IN SALVATION ARMY

How the only WomanS nat N the
world that never goes out of style
the Salvation Army Lassie's famous
blue bonnet-was selected more than
forty years ago by her mother. Mrs.
General William Booth. wife OF the
founder of the Army. was told in New
York recently by Commander Evan
geline Booth, head of the Salvation
Army in the United States.
To the masculine mind the prob
lem may seem a simple one, but any
woman. experienced in the perplexi-
ties of selecting an Easter bonnet for
herself alone, will realize what her
culean task it would be TO pick a
bonnet for all the woment that fol-
low IN her line.
Mrs Booth did not choose hastily.
Summoning her four daughters and
two servants TO one of the larger
rooms of their humble London home,
she tried first on the young ladies,
and then on herself. the pieces of
headgear that had been submitted at
her request The problem was first
one CT elimination.
Flowers and feathers were out Of
the question" explained the present
Commander in this country. Gay
colors were barred from the very
start, for the Salvation Army bonnet
was to be a protest against the frills
and furbelos of that generation as
we'll as of succeeding ones. The prob
lem was to discover or to invent, a
hat that was unobtrusive, distinctive
dignified and at the same time becom-
ing to women of all the varied ply
steal and facial characteristics.
"One by one by mother tried the
hats on her assembled daughters. She
was confident that if she could find
or devise a hat becoming to all of
us, it would look we'll on Salvation
Army lassies of that as well as fu-
ture generations. How funny some
of the hats of the time looked! Again,
what one could wear failed to become
the next. For a time it looked as if
the Salvation Lassies might have to
go hatless.
"Such might have been the case,
except that my mother called her in
genuity into play. Taking one of the
rejected hats, she began to cut and
bend, twist and sew it, and in a short
time had fashioned a rough model of
our present bonnet. 1t was triumph
antly tried on all present and voted
the most universally becoming and
practicable"
From that day to the present the
now-familiar blue bonnet has encoun
tered many vieissitudes. For some
years, both in this country and
abroad. the bonnet was the target of
jeering, ridicule and often of more
penetrating missiles. That, however,
was before the public really learned
the love. self-sacrifice and devotion
that animate every wearer of the
quaint hats.
That one" and here the Command
er pointed to her own blue straw
bonnet with its blue streamers and
red bard, "is over five years old and
is as good as ever. Do you know of
any other hat that will look as well
or be so much admired after five
years of continued wear?"
Asked if the style would ever
change, Miss Booth smiled, Does the
grass on the hills change its style?
Is it now green, now blue it must be
very old-fashioned by this time but
surely it is not less beautiful nor
less useful. No, our bonnet will not
change"
For time, however, the blue bon
net was once laid aside, and the las
sizes. donning chic trench caps, rushed
to France to fry doughnuts an! win
the everlasting gratitude OF the
American lighting men. But now the
blue bonnet is back in the peacetime
service of mankind. Changed slight
ly to suit tastes and times, but not
materially different from the original
model, it is the symbol of kindly aid
helpfulness, humanitarian service and
hope in all those noisome spots where
sin, poverty, sickness and distress
stalk otherwise unafraid