hat to other men whom one thus acknowledges as superiors is much
more prevalent than in our democratic country. Though in America we
remove our hats in elevators upon the entrance of ladies, a practice
which is not followed in England. It was Mrs. Nickleby who indicated
the extreme politeness of the noble gentlemen who showed her to her
carriage by the celebrated remark that they took their hats "completely
off." We express great joy by casting our hats into the air. If I
wish to show my contempt for you I will wear my hat in your house; if I
wish you to clear out of my house I say: "Here's your hat"; if I am
moved to admiration for you I say: "I take off my hat to you." I
greatly enjoy seeing you run after your hat in the street, because you
are thereby made excessively ridiculous. The comic Irishman of the
vaudeville stage makes his character unmistakable to all by carrying
his clay pipe in his hat band. The English painter, Thomas
Gainsborough, gave his name to a hat. The seasoned newspaper man
displays his cynical nature and complete disillusionment by wearing his
hat at his desk. A hat worn tilted well back on the head indicates an
open nature and a hail-fellow-well-met disposition; while a hat
decidedly tilted over one eye is the sign of a hard character, and one
not to be trifled with. In the literature of alcoholism it is written
that a common hallucination of the inebriate is that a voice cries
after him: "Where did you get that white hat?" Upon assuming office
the cardinal is said to "take the hat." When a man is conspicuously
active in American political life "his hat is in the ring." Whistler
topped off his press-agent eccentricity with a funny hat. The most
idiosyncratic hat at present in America is that which decorates the
peak of Mr. Bliss Carman. The hat-stands in our swagger hotels make a
great deal of money; I know a gentleman who affirmed that a hat which
had originally cost him three dollars had cost him eighteen dollars to
be got back from hat-checking stands. Cheap people evade the hat-boy.

When the present enthusiast for the splendid subject of hats was a
small boy it was the ambition of every small boy of his acquaintance to
be regarded as of sufficient age to possess what we termed a "dice
hat," what is commonly called a "derby," what in England they call a
"darby," what Dickens aptly referred to as a "pot-hat," what, in one
highly diverting form, is sometimes referred to on the