No. 12.

THE high crown hat, vulgarly termed "stove-pipe," may be taken as the general indicator of fashions existing during the period of the present century. Following the "cocked" hat (the counterpart of the French chapeau), which style prevailed at the time of the American Revolution, was the "steeple top," which had a conical crown. This shape for a high hat was soon abandoned and the bell crown substituted, and so acceptable has this particular style proved that, since the opening of this century, it has held supremacy as the fashionable head-covering for man, despite frequent attempts to destroy its popularity by the introduction of other shapes, or the advocating of a change as practical.

High hats were first napped with beaver fur, which material, being expensive, necessarily made costly hats. Otter fur was afterwards used, then muskrat, which greatly lessened their cost.

"Scratch" or "brush" hats (terms used for hats made with a felt body and afterwards combed or scratched until a nap was raised) were manufactured and worn prior to the middle of the century. These were all stiffened high hats, and constituted the dressy article of headwear until the introduction of the silk hat, which for the last fifty years has maintained its ascendency as the leading article of fashion in gentlemen's hats.

About the year 1830 the beaver hat assumed huge proportions of crown, having a very heavy "bell," measuring full seven inches in height and nine inches across the tip; to this crown was added an insignificant brim of only one and a half inches in width. These hats were covered with a beaver nap of such a length that it waved with the wind, and its appearance upon the head of the wearer was as outre and unique as the "shako" on the head of a modern drum-major.

To more forcibly illustrate the proportions of this style of hat, we may say that its actual capacity was nearly a peck.

Besides the high hats of either beaver, brush or silk, caps made of cloth or fur were much used prior to the introduction of the soft felt hat, and continued to be so until an incident occurred which created a sudden revolution in the tastes of the American people regarding their head-dress.

The visit of Louis Kossuth, the eminent Hungarian patriot, to this country in the year 1851, had the effect of producing a wonderful change in the fashion of hats. The one worn by Kossuth was a high unstiffened black felt trimmed with a wide band, and was ornamented with an ostrich feather. The immense popularity of this famous foreigner with all Americans brought about the fashion of a similar hat. Never before or since in this country did the introduction of a new fashion in hats spread with such rapidity as did the "Kossuth." All hat factories in the country were taxed to their utmost capacity to supply the demand, until every American citizen, old and young, was to be seen wearing a soft hat ornamented with an ostrich plume. It was the "Kossuth" that marked the era of the introduction of the soft or slouch hat, and stimulated the sale of that undress article of headwear, which continued in vogue throughout the United States for a number of years. The soft hat appeared in many forms and styles, some of which became universally popular. The "wide-awake," brought out during the election campaign of Abraham Lincoln, in the year 1860, was a noted and successful style. It was a low crown, white felt, with wide black band and binding.

Robert Bonner's original and successful advertising of his newspaper, the New York Ledger, was a sensation of the day, and the "Ledger" was the name given to a soft hat that commanded a great sale. The peculiarity of the "Ledger" was a narrow leather band and leather binding.

The "resorte" brim was an American invention, introduced about the year 1863; it was simply a wire held to the edge of the brim of a soft hat with a binding, and so extended as to maintain a flatness, and permit its conforming to the head without destroying its outlines. This invention was patented, and its extensive use brought large profits to the owners of the patent.

The event of the Civil War gave an increased stimulus to the use of the soft hat. With the South in a state of excitement, alarmed with portentous fears of a sectional war, such matters as pertained to elegance of dress were banished from the minds of its people, and the North, with a large army recruiting from its citizen class, brought the universal practice of economy among the American people, limiting their indulgence in expenditures for articles of dress considered as luxuries, and the silk hat falling under that ban, dropped almost into absolute disuse. With the return, however, of prosperity, an apparent desire for a more dressy article was manifest, and the stiff felt hat generally denominated the Derby was introduced.

The derby was made in various proportions of crown and brim, as the caprice of fashion dictated, and was, as its name might imply, an adopted English style; it gradually grew in favor with Americans, until it became the universal fashion of the day, maintaining that position for several years. From an increased popularity it has been brought into such common use as to again create a growing desire for an article claiming something bearing a more exclusive mark of gentility or dignity, which the silk hat meets, and the silk hat is again so increasing in use as to establish the certainty of its maintaining with the American people its wonted place of priority as the article of genteel head-dress, marking the standard of fashion and style.

Baltimore, always noted for its readiness in accepting foreign fashions, must have been among the first of American cities to adopt the silk hat, which was claimed to be of French invention, but if there be any foundation for the following narrative, the first silk hat was not made in Paris, but in China. It is stated that a French sea-captain, while sailing on the coast of China, desiring to have his shabby napped beaver hat, which had been made in Paris, replaced by a new one, took it ashore, probably to Calcutta or Canton, to see if he could procure one like it. As Parisian styles were not in vogue in China, he found nothing of closer resemblance than the lacquered papier-mache or bamboo straw. The keen shrewdness of the Chinaman, however, quickly suggested a near imitation in silk-plush. This is said to have happened in 1830, and the captain returning to Paris, showed the Chinaman's product to his own hatter, who, upon perceiving its beauty, at once attempted its introduction as a fashion, which has long ruled nearly the whole world.

The first silk hat produced in Baltimore is said to have been made by one Victor Sarata in 1838, though some contend that Jacob Rogers was the first to make such goods; but as the silk hat was looked upon as an innovation, and its introduction opposed by hat makers of that time, as being detrimental to their interests, it is more than probable that Mr. Rogers did not give encouragement to the manufacture of an article likely to supplant the use of his own make of "Beavers," "Russias" and "Bolivars," and we may thus safely give credit to Victor Sarata for first producing in Baltimore this new article of fashion, originating in Paris, the city from whence he came.

Until the year 1850, Paris fashions were those generally adopted in the leading American cities, after which English fashions in hats entirely superseded the former, becoming so popular that not only large importations of English hats were made, but American manufacturers invariably copied English styles, and indulged in the degrading habit of pirating English trade-marks, for the purpose of increasing their sales. Happily, the necessity for such pernicious practices is at an end, for during the past ten years the great strides made by American manufacturers in the improvements of hat making place them in the foremost rank of that industry; in fact, with those elements of manufacture necessary to perfection, such as fineness of texture, lightness in weight, and elegance in style, American hatters to-day hold supremacy in the whole world, and, favored by relief from the tariff tax upon raw materials from which hats are made, all of which is of foreign growth, America will be found sending to the countries which taught her the art, examples of this industry far superior to those her teachers ever furnished her.