BELLTOPPER ETIQUETTE

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 88, 13 April 1912, Page 10

BELLTOPPER ETIQUETTE

The etiquette of the hat ie curious. "He came to rje hat in hand" ie a common announcement iv the witnessbox, meaning humility. But. theio are people who regard the removal of the hat as an insult/ The Englishman inDtiiictivfily takes off his hat when he gets under cover of a roof as a. mark of respect for cover or an indication of relief. But tho Piedmontese peasant, when he (joes to the house of his landlord to pay his rent, scrupulously keeps his hat on as a mark of respect; while the Irish peasant takes it off, even if he goes to the landlord's agent with his rent. That suggests the head-covering of the Jew iv the synagogue; it is the signal of respect. Tho Italian paaaaait, carries tin's to the two extremes vvhen ho insists upon being bmied in his Sunday clothes, from hat to boots. It would be interesting to trace Xhm cult of the hat through Palestine to Piedmont , A year or two ago an attempt wan made by rertam members of the Municipal Council of Courteuil, in France, to make the wearing of a top-hat illegal, the grounds set forth for the measure being that the sight of a silk hat is a humiliation to those who cannot afford to wear one: tha<- it is both unbeautiful and unnecessary as an article of attire; and also, and chiefly, because it is worn mostly by aristocrats, who live by the sweat of the poor, and militated against equality among the citizens of the Republic. A fine of five francs was tho " proposed penalty for wearing the condemned headgear, but the measure was rejected. Lord George Sanger's penchant for wearing a hat indoors was shared by another celebrity. Auber'<s biographer relates that "there was but one drawback uo his enjoyment of ladies' society — he was obliged to remove his hat in their presence, and he hated being without it. He composed with his hat on, had his meals in it, and invariably had a box when he went to the- theatre, so as to remain covered. In some parts of the v world the silk hat is still the professional headgear of the chimney sweep. About a .dozen years ago the writer in the London Daily Chronicle of the above garticular6 iconstantly observed this in Wurtemberg, and last year ho found the same combination in Switzerland. Th« mysterious relations between the- hat and the occupation, convictions, and recreations, would make an interesting study. At one time tho politician who wore a white hat proclaimed himself a Radical; nowadays he would probably be suspected as an old-fashioned Tory. Then, no eelf-respectmg cricketer Would have appeared, without a tall hat in former days. But Mr. Jenner-Fust has recorded how he and others were compelled to drop the habit in the 'twenties and 'thirties by the spectators' jeers at "post-boys." And now the^ silk hat is dead in America and dying in London. Surely the time, has come to write its biography. The eilk hat was knowu in Florence towards the end of the eighteenth century, but its growth in popularity did not begiu until 1825, when xvi manufacture wa6 begun in France. It would Be interesting to icnow who struck the first blow at the fashion which made it once the only wear for the city man, if only that a grateful country might erect a statue to him. Hat-wearing indoors still survives, as we have found out, -but is there anywhere where it is now permissible to keep on one's hat in church? At one. time it was quite customary to --wear hats during the leis solemn parts of the service. In the British Museum it a picture bi Luther' preaching,- in'' which ' all the congregation ' a"re bearing hats, "and an account of the Greek Church in 1680 specially mentions the wearing of hats daring the services. And in Holland as late as 1860 the men would put on their hats ac soon as the service began. The Jewish congregation, l of- course, has always kept |tno masculine hat on. Polish subjects of the Tsar were at one time compelled to wear top-hats. In 1863, according to Sutherland Edwards, "the Russians saw that the time had come for stamping out Polish resistance in every form. The Warsaw theatres, which had long; been closed, were opened by superior authority. For nearly two years everyone had worn mourning. To wear mourning, except for near relatives, was now made a punishable offence; and equally so to wear any sort of headgear except the top-hat, 'the cylinder of civilisation,' as ■ Count Berg called ' it in his droll proclamation on the subject."