Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 312, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 January 1918 — DOFFING THE HAT [ARTICLE]

DOFFING THE HAT

Politeness Traced Back to the Primitive Times. Ancient Peoples, as Mark of Submission, Uncovered Body and Surrenderee! Their Clothing. - We consider a man a gentleman who* takes off bis hat to a lady. At least the act Is thought to, be gentlemanly, polite. The origin of this custom, like so many other customs common among so-called civilized peoples, goes back to primitive times, says the Salt Lake Tribune. ! ; When a person was made captive his conqueror stripped him of his weapons and clothing and left him without anything he could: call his own. The captive was thus made a slave, his lack of clothing being evidence of his subjugation. We need only to look at the sculptures of the Assyrians to see the truth of the fact And in Isaiah 20:2-4, we find the following statement: “And the Lord said, like as my servant Isaiah hath walked naked and barefoot three years for a- sign, so shall the king of Assyria lead away the Egyptians, prisoners and the Ethiopians captives, young and old, naked and barefoot.” The first step, then, In tracing the origin of taking off the hat is the surrender of the clothing among primitive and ancient peoples as a mark of submission. The next step is the un-. covering of the body as a mark of reverence. There are all degrees of uncovering, though often only the most valuable parts of the clothing are taken off in the presence of superiors. It must be remembered that this act of uncovering the body was ceremonial In nature and used to show reverence to a superior. Then came the use of the ceremonial to propitiate the dead. We can' see a remnant of this most any time. At funerals and in our graveyards men take off their bats. They still take off their hats on entering churches and before the images of Christ arid the Madonna.

In times of chivalry men raised their hats to ladies to show reverence. But this was only superficial in meaning. A knight would ride down a poor peasant woman carrying a large burden and never think of helping her —least of all would he think of taking off his hat to her. However, if he heard of some beautiful damsel of his own class In the slightest danger, imaginary or real, he would go to her and, hat in hand, kneel and dedicate himself to her service.

Today much the same things occur. Ordinarily a gay youth forgets to take off his hat to his mother, yet he shows this deference to his “best girl.” After all It Is only form, and politeness should go deeper than this. However, the form persists, and it is of some historical interest to remember that it is a remnant of the primitive stripping of a captive by which process was expressed the fact that he yielded up all he had. Taking off the hat to a wealthy girl means, occasionally, not only the yielding up of all you have, but the getting of all she has. Ceremony Is often nothing but a hard calculation in regard to personal results, especially where self-aggrandizement Is the ultimate aim of the polished in-> dividual.