Jasper County Democrat, Volume 22, Number 18, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 May 1919 — TALL HAT STILL IN VOGUE [ARTICLE]

TALL HAT STILL IN VOGUE

Hudgtar That Haa Bean Object of Ridicule for Many Years Manageo to Retain Popularity. For none BO years the tall hat haa boon an object of ridicule with humor* lata. The war. It waa thought, would cause ita disappearance, but It haa resisted all attack*. A recent photograph showing a group of allied statesmen tn conversation —Lloyd Oeorge, M. Clemenceau, and Baron Sonnlno — depicted them all wearing thia “emblem of western civilisation." There is considerable difference of opinion on the origin of the tall hat The Encyclopaedia Britannica unhesitatingly declares that the tall hat is “coextensive with civilisation," and asserts that It was invented in Florence about 1700. On the other hand, the London Tinies of January 16, 1707, reports that John Hetherington, haberdasher, of the Strand, was charged with causing a riot through wearing a hat “shaped like a stove-pipe." When brought before the magistrates be ds-i dared that all British citizens had the right of choosing the type of hat which I they believed most suitable. Earlier than this, however, In 1790, Benjamin Franklin visited Paris In a tall bat, and immediately the Parisian batmakers flooded the shops with similar hats, which, history tells us, “were adopted by the revolutionaries because they come from the land of liberty."