Discarded Silk Hats

1895

A New Lease of Life For Them Even Though Out of Style.

What is the doom of the discarded silk hat which is dimpled and framed after the fashion of a year ago and is therefore an offense in the sight of the fastidious owner? It may go any one of several ways. It may be groomed and ironed afresh and then adorn the occiput of a herdic driver. It may be torn to pieces and the component silk and leather enter into the construction of a fresh article of headgear and pursue a new lease of existence in a humble sphere. It may sink so low as to decorate a scarecrow, or it may find a last refuge and master in the person of a member of the Coxeyite battalion.

The average life of a silk hat is about a year, so at least estimated a venerable repairer and cleaner. In nine cases out of ten when a man orders a new tile he leaves the old one with the dealer, receiving a 50 cent rebate on the same, be its condition good, bad or indifferent. The dealer accepts the old hat merely to accommodate the customer and not because he wants it. He generally sells it again at a uniform price of 60 cents to one of the professional hat ironers and revivers.

The hat is then given a special inspection. Its teeth are examined, so to speak. If it is in tolerably good condition, it is given an ironing and sold for $1 to a coachman or hack driver. These men are best customers and will pay $1 or so for a decent hat, no matter if its style is that of the year before last.

But more often the hat is too far gone for this purpose. If the silk is not too much worn, it is used in the making of children's hats, those of the shape of a truncated cone. The top is new silk. It also goes into the chapeaux worn by uniformed organizations like the Knights of Pythias and Patriarchs Militant. The old silk is often used to line the chapeau where it is folded in and will last 30 years after previously doing duty on a fashionable chimney pot.

As a last resource the poor old hat is sold to make sport in a procession of antiques and horribles. After that the tramp, the ash barrel or the garbage scow claims it for its own. — American Hatter.