TRAGEDY OF THE SILK HAT.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1078, 17 March 1911, Page 5

TRAGEDY OF THE SILK HAT.

* Even the silk hat has felt the sad effects of that transition age which we sec in so many directions. Tho British Board of Trade says that employment in the silk-hat trade is bad. Gentlemen in the West End of London, equally with those whoso professional life is passed in and around tho Law Courts, were the mainstay of tho silk-hat trade a few years ago; but today these select and cultured heads are covered with bats so shockingly unconventional that the line of distinction is lost amid the democratic confusion. Said the manager of an old-established London manufacturer to tho "Westminster Gazette" : "We make hats for all heads; but thero is undoubtedly a great fallingoff in the demand for the silk'hat." In the retail trade, the decline of the silk hat in public favour is noted with deep regret. "Five years ago," said tho manager of a very old firm, "I used to think trade was bad if my stock of silk hats was not reduced by over 3000 per annum. Last year I doubt-if I .sold 1000. .And those I do get rid of are for the mest part of the cheaper kind. Yet the silk hat," he sighed, "is really the cheapest hat that is made I" Apart from the change in the people's taste, however, there aro several welldefined causes for the shrinking of tho silk-hat trade. Coachmen and footmen in. private families, Ixforo tho advent of tho motor-car, each required on an average a couple of -jats a year. "The livery coachman's hat, with cockade," said the informant, "costs IGs. Cd. each; and the demand for these, in addition to those required by the jobmasters for their hiring trade, brought a steady revenue to the hatters every year. Nowadays tho people supplying the motor-car to our one-timo carriage folks also engage to find tho uniform, and the silk hat, unfortunately, finds no place in the outfit. And another cause for the small demand for the silk hat is to bo found in tho general discarding of the frock-coat through the rage for dress of more free-and-easy design."