July 25.
Ir is curious how often headgear has symbolized some movement in history, or some school of thought. There are few, people, perhaps, who would regard the silk hat, that emblem both of die-hard conservatism and of the Victorian "nonconformist conscience," as having its origin in Republican Puritanism. When Benjamin Franklin went over to France as the first representative the New Republic in America, he wore a modified form of the lo crown head dress of the Pilgrim Fathers.—Paris copied it and the hat underwent a gradual metamorphosis until] it emerged as a cylinder, which respectable Christendom has worn ever since. Fiery British' exponents of what they regard as liberty show their contempt for the existing order of things by appearing on every possible occasion wearing cloth caps, In fact, caps have for ages symbolized socialistic views, from the red cap of the French revolutionaries to the tweed head covering of Keir Hardie.
'Again, look at the Chinese Revolution. It was accompanied by some very wonderful changes in the matter "of headgear. "The true republican of China retained to' a great extent the ady -garments of his ancestors, though he cut off queue, that badge of Manchu servitude, 'But in_his head covering he showed all his adherence to the new faith that was to bring! forth a new heaven and a new! earth in Old' Cathay. The! ancient round cap with its! knob, on the top disappeared' and its place was taken sometimes by a cloth cap, sometimes by a billy-cock but mostly by cleft hat of a washed-out hue.
Now we are told that the Turk is about to cast away his fez as an outward and visible sign that he is to emerge from Oriental medievalism and take his place among his brothers of the modern West. He has been told by his government that he is at liberty to cover his head with any sort of hat he likes or with none at all. What, one wonders, will be the effect! upon the mentality of the inhabitants of that much-tried country. It will afford a study' in the psychology of hats, which should be even more instructive than the psychology of clothes. May be the Turk sans° fez will develop into al meek and mild sort of individual who will prefer being swindled by foreigners to bastinadoing' them and who would rather caress the wily Greek than' curse him. Why the hat should so often be used to symbolize historical changes in outlook it] is impossible to say. Perhaps because it is worn so near the! seat of mental operations. But! may be some up-to-date Carlyle will thrill the world ere long with a tnasterpiece on the' Philosophy of Hats,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.