THE MORAL SIGNIFICANCE OF THE CHIMNEYPOT HAT.

Tuapeka Times, Volume III, Issue 186, 31 August 1871, Page 3

THE MORAL SIGNIFICANCE OF THE CHIMNEYPOT HAT.

But \mquesfcionably the n:ost remarkable feature in the history of the hat is the intense moral significance which is attached to it in England. By a curious association of ideas it has come to be regarded as a badge of that respectability which Englishmen hold so clear. The prevalence of this notion may be realised by a very simple experiment. Discard its use for a time, and you will soon discover,in parting with your hat, you have parted with your credentials as a decent member of society. It has happened to the virtuous tourist in the course of his summer wandertngs, up Alps or among grey cathedral towns, to chance suddenly on one oft hose oases of fashionable resort where English most do love to congregate. In a reckless mood he has exchanged the hat of convention for the wideawake of comfort; and with no other covering for his sunburnt brow, he presents himself to the fashionable throng on the promenade or at the door of the Protestant temple, alone among the hatcrowned hatless found. He will soon perceive how seriously compromised is his social position, by his hatless condition. In the cold looks and contemptuous stares of his countrymen aud countrywomen he will read a silent but expressive sentence of excommunication. Like the Shadowless Man of the Grerman story he will find that a sort of socil blight attends his steps. In vain he will try to exchange civilities at the table d'hote with the correct British matron, or to talk politics with the pompous British paterfamilias. The tket of his hatlessness will have been noted to his discredit; and he will have been set down, on the strength of it, as an undesirable acquaintance. He has contracted thereby a taint of Bohemianism which makes him anobject of sucpicion to the colony of his compatriots at Gerolslein or Douchy-les-bains. There is nothing left for him but to accept the lot of a pariah with philosophy, and if he is incliued to be sociable, to fall back on the company of bagmen and waiters. Now this prejudice of society against the hatless man is really rather fanciful. There is no reason to suppose that the hat denotes virtue. One may dismiss the notion th;it it operates as a sort of outward and visible conscience, restraining the wearer from evil or questionable actions. Some of the most remarkable murderers of fcheir day have been distinguished for the excellent condition of their hats as a visit to Tussaud's interesting exhibition will attest. Even the pacific broadbrim the Quaker has before now adorned the criminal dock. To the confidence inspired by a glossy hat the swindler and imposter owe no small part of their success. It is part of the stock disguise under which they prey on their unsurpe^ting fellow-creatures. But though a hafc is no index of moral excellence, and like other good things is capable of abuse, it yet is eminently typical of that compound of well-to-do-ism and regard for our neighbor's good opinion which we English dignify by the name of respectability. Prima facie, it raises a double set of' presumptions in favor of its wearer. Tbe first has reference to his worldly circumstances ; as, for instance, that he is a householder, or a registered elector, or a national creditor, or a shareholder, — that he has a recognised profession, or that he has a wife and family, or that he has friends of more or less influence ; in short that he has what is popularly called a stake of some kind or other in the country. The second relates to the bent of his mind and character. He may be safely set down as a man fanatically attached to tlie current decencies and proprieties, who shudders at singularities as a crime, who glories in being perfectly commonplance and conventional, and whose highest aim is to pass throu >h life without offending one of the minutest prejudices of society. Hence the immense favour which the hat enjoys in the great middle-class of England. To the prosperous tradesman ib is at once a symbol of bis thriving business and an advertisement of his correct behavior. And in the upper classes the same association of ideas extensively prevails. Alone in the ranks of their countrymen, poets, and artists refuse to bow their heads to the hatfetish. Politicians and official personages could not venture to emancipate themselves from its thraldom without risking the loss of public confidence. If Mr. Gladstone were to go down to the House in a wide-a-wake, his tenure of power would probably not be worth a word's purchase. Even the jaunty Chancellor of the Exchequer could not venture on such an innovation without imperilling tbe success oi 1 his next budget. And the same thing is true of the small fry of bureaucracy. All who transact public business do so on the implied condition that they come down in a hat to transact it. England expect every official to wear a chimney-pot. Even so obscure a placeman as a school-inspector cannot go his rounds in a travelling-cap, without reading a look of slight surprise on the faces of the managers to whom he presents himself, and without feeling that his reputation for official wisdom ' isjusta little compromised. — " Saturday Eeview."

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