The Legend of the Felt Hat

1874

There is a legend among the hatters that felt was invented by no less a personage than St. Clement, the patron saint of their trade. Wishing to make a pilgrimage to the Holy Sepulchre, and at the same time to do penance for sundry unexpiated peccadilloes, the pious monk started on his journey afoot. As to whether he was afflicted with corns or kindred miseries, the ancient chronicle from which this information is derived is silent; but, at all events, a few days' successive tramping soon began to blister his feet. In order to obtain relief, it occurred to him to line his shoes with the fur of a rabbit. This he did, and, on arriving at his destination, was surprised to find that the warmth and moisture of his feet had worked the soft hair into a cloth-like mass. The idea thus suggested he elaborated in the solitude of his cell, and, finally, there being no patent laws in existence in those days, he gratuitously presented to his fellow- mortals the result of his genius in the shape of a felt hat.


The English Language

In the English Bible and in the works of authors living in the times of King James the word "his" is employed in the sense in which we now use "its." Years ago Richard C. Trench asserted that, in the "authorized version of the Bible 'its' does not once occur." This statement is sustained by Webster and Worcester, but it has recently been discovered that Leviticus, twenty-fifth chapter and fifth verse, reads, "that which groweth of its own accord." This verse reads as above in the modern editions of the Bible, but the change may be one of those corrections that have gradually slipped into the text. An examination of the early editions only can settle the question.


A gentleman, while walking in his garden, caught his gardener asleep under a tree. He scolded him soundly for his laziness, and ended by telling him such a sluggard was not worthy to enjoy the light of the sun. "It was for that reason exactly," said the gardener, "that I crept into the shade."