HATS AT £2000 APIECE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 59, 3 April 1909, Page 4

HATS AT £2OOO APIECE.

Tin; hat. wliich a recent deatli has placed at the disposal of the I'ope of Home, will cost, whoever may !»;• Us recipient, certainly not less than .€2llOO. This includes a variety of disbursements to all sorts of people, but the whole of them centre round the allimportant hat. Thus custom decrees that the officer of tin* l'apul Guard who is responsible ;Or its safe custody while it is in process of delivery to the -new cardinal shall be presented with C2UU in cash, and a gold ink-pot worth CIO, The actual hearer of the hat ifceives U4OO in money and a ertes and missal of the value ol C4O. The secretary of the mission which accompanies it gels CUD. The cost of the registration of the patent \< CSKO: and between C2OO and cyi)o has to be distributed in compulsory presents when, at the Rontilieal Court. the recipient balances it on top of his head for the 'lirst and only time. For a cardinal'ts bat cannot be worn like any ordinary piece of'headgear. Indeed, it i* not really a hat at all. but a llat, pancake-like square of ixd cloth, destitute alike of either brim or crown. The lirst thing the new cardinal has to do, therefore, after paving out the C200I), is to go out and buy himself a hat which he can. put on. Even this one is pretty expensive, for there are only about half-a-dozen shops in Europe which stock 'them, and the proprietors naturally ke«*p up the price to a remunerative level. It is. too, exceedingly -heavy and uncomfortable. being composed a'i n kind of thick cardboard ma-terial. covered with the line cloth u«-ed for billiard tables, but dyed, of eour.se, a brilliant red. and it i> ornamented with gold cord and tassels. It costs about CH. and four or five of them- are needed by the cardinal every year. The C2OOO hat hanjrs above the :illar h the private chape.l of Mis Kminen<e during his life, and at death is buried with him.