An Automatic Hat.

Auckland Star, Volume XXVI, Issue 265, 14 November 1885, Page 6

An Automatic Hat.

We hoar that in several cities of the United States the prominent men have adopted an automatically saluting hat. The principle is that when tho person provided with one of these hats meeta an acquaintance, ho purely pressos a button at his aide, and the hat is thereupon raised by hidden machinery. If it bo introduced in England we foresee a long line of calamities. Fancy the field for tho practical jokist. For instance, lounging arm-in-arm with his bosom friend and seeing a newlymarried couple approach, he has only to tell his companion a regular sido-eplitter, and direct his laughing confrere's attention to the beauty of the young wife, at the same time pressing his button, and the husband will at once ask for explanations, while driving tho machinery of the automatic hat into the head of the happy wearer, to tho intense delight of the jokist. O, there wiil be a world of trouble! Then these mechanical contrivances are always getting out of ordor. Fancy your hat obstinately stopping a foot away from your head andrefusingto descend on a cold winter's morning, apart from the look of the thing ! Or think of a pig-headed hat refusing to answor tho button when you meet a particular lady friend, or suppose the button should lose its control, and the hat should become joyous, making your walk to the City two miles of idiotic politeness. Oh ! it's not to be thought of.