Rensselaer Union and Jasper Republican, Volume 8, Number 28, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 March 1876 — The Quaker’s Hat. [ARTICLE]

The Quaker’s Hat.

The first occasion on which the Quaker’s hat came publicly and officially into trouble was at the Launceston Assizes, in the year 1056, before no less a person than Chief-Justice Glynn. “ When wc were brought into the court,” says Fox, “we stood a pretty while with our hats on, and all wae ouiet, and I was moved to say: ‘ Peace be amongst you I’ ‘ Why do you not put your hats offf’said the Judge to us. We said nothing. ‘Put oil' your hats,’ said the Judge, again. Still we said nothing. Then said the Judger * The court commands you to put off your nats.’ ” George Fox, with amazing simplicity, asked for some Scriptural instance of any magistrate commanding prisoners to put off their hats. He next asked to be shown, “ either printed or written, any law of England that did command such a thing.” Then the Jtidge grew very angry, and said: “Ido not carry my law books on my back.” “ But,” said Fox, “ tell me where it is printed in any statutebook, that I may read it.” The ChiefJustice cried out: “Prevaricator,” and ordered the Quakers to be taken away. When they were brought before him again the Chief-Justice asked Fox whether hats were mentioned at all in the Bible. “Yes,” said the Quaker, “in the third of Daniel, where thou mavst read that the three children were cast into the fiery fUrnace by Nebuchadnezzar’s command, with their coats, their hose and their hats on!” Here was a proof that even a heathen King allowed men to wear hats in his presence. ’“This plain instance stoppea him,” says Fox, “so he cried again: * Take them away, gaoler;’ accordingly we were taken away and thrust in among the thieves, where we were kept a great while.” After nine weeks’ imprisonment 11 for nothing but about their hats,” as the Chief-Justice told them, they were again brought before him. “ Which he did,” says Fox, “and gave them unto us, and we put them on again. Then the Judge began to make a great speech, how he represented the Lord Protector’s person, and that he had made him Lord ChiefJustice of England.” The Quakers were incorrigible. They were sent back to prison, but not really so much for the wearing of their hats as for the suspicion that they were royalist emissaries, affecting religious singularity in order to win their way among the extreme Puritans.— London /Saturday Review.