HATS AND HAT MAKING. It is diffi cult to state just when hats were first worn, but it is a fact that fur-felt hats now form part of the attire of civilized man the world over. There is no record as to when or where the first hat was made. We find head covering in one form or another in vogue in the earliest times referred to in history. The first modern hat, as we now know this article of men's wear, was made in Paris about 1404 by a Swiss manu facturer, but it was not until 49 years after ward that the French adopted any sort of in head covering. Charles XII, upon his entry n triumph into the city of Rouen in 1453, wore a huge hat made of fur, lined with red velvet, from which protruded a great feather. With royalty as its sponsor the hat at once became a necessary detail of man's wardrobe. The hat is distinguished from the cap or bonnet by its continuous brim. It has been traced back to the "petasue of ancient Greece, just as the cap has been regarded as the descendant of the brimless also a form of Grecian head attire. These articles, as far as we know, were made almost exclusively of felt.
Felt hats became popular in England during the Norman occupation. In Queen Elizabeth s reign great beaver hats, usually black, were the favorite among the nobility, and they remained in vogue for more than 300 years. About the middle of the 17th century an effort was made to encourage this industry in America. In 1662 the assembly of Virginia, to stimulate activity among the colonists, offered, by special enact ment, to give 10 pounds of tobacco for every good wool or fur hat produced in that colony from materials taken from animals native thereto. Hats were then made by hand, and no effort of ahy consequence was made to improve the primitive conditions until 1820, when the energy of the American inventor produced the first labor-saving machine. Improvement now followed improvement, each one, in its way, tending to economize the cost of making.
In 1810 the silk hat appeared. It was made by hand, and failed in its purpose to supplant the tiled beaver. It was not until 1830 that the silk plush hat was manufactured upon a paying basis.
In 1849 the soft felt hat made its bow in the United States. Its sponsor was the famous Hungarian patriot, Kossuth, who visited Amer ica in that year. He was given tremendous re
ceptions everywhere, and won the heart of the great American republic. His great hat seemed to be typical of the vigorous character of the man, and it was not surprising that the °Kos suth* became a general favorite. From that time the soft hat has steadily gained friends, and to day in many sections it is a predominant type.
While the industry in this country, prior to the Civil War, kept pace with progress in other lines, it was not able to hat the heads of thou sands of Americans, and the foreign manufac turer found the States a very profitable terri tory. But to-day America has become a great exporter of hats. This foreign trade is con trolled by the cities of New York and Phila delphia, where the finest grades of hats in the world are made. The other well-known hat centres in America are Orange and Newark, N. J., Danbury, Bethel and Norwalk, Conn., Brooklyn, N. Y., and Reading, Pa.
The kinds of hats now made are so numerous• as to be almost beyond the possibility of listing. There are, however, three principal clarifica tions: the felt hat, which includes the soft and the stiff or derby shape, the silk hat and the straw hat. All other kinds are but variations in some way of these three.
Felt Hats.—The principal material of which felt hats are made is the fur of the European rabbit or cony and of the European hares. The finer grades are made of the fur of the South American nutria, and a limited quantity from the fur of the Canadian beaver, mink and muskrat. For some fine hats mixtures of these furs are made.
The quality of the felt when finished de pends upon many seemingly insignificant de tails, and these begin to have their effect in the condition of the fur itself at the time it reaches the market. The method by which the animal was killed, the time which elapsed be fore it was skinned, the conditions of tem perature and humidity in which the skin was kept before reaching the hat maker —all these have their effect upon the appearance and qual ity of the finished hat. Other particulars which affect the strength and character of the felt eventually produced are the lengths and diam eters of the individual fibres of fur used and the part of the pelt from which they are taken.