A MONSTER HAT

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 9540, 12 July 1909, Page 3

A MONSTER HAT

A hat of the "Merriy Widow*' type—of which an official police report estimated the circumference at 12ft—caused such a stir in Brixton High road on a recent Saturday evening that the police had to disperse the people who had gathered to gaze at it, says the Loudon "Daily Mail " Probably it is the first, hat in London to form the reason for a police report, as the officers who were called had to notify td their superiors the cause of the "disturbarce" and what was done. About six o'clock the hat I" came to Britxon in an open taxicakb. The wearer, the widow of a racehorse trainer, had been to Kempton Park in the afternoon and ■ intended to shop at Brixton before returning home. But the hat caused the plans to be tipset. The wearer, when she alighted from the . cab, found the, attention of the people around her riveted upon the hat, with its sweeping ostrich plumes, black and pearl-white, curling alon3 the brim. The numbers of the hatgazers grew, and to escape annoyance the Wearer took refuge in a shop by Brixton Station and explained the position to the proprietor. But the crowd outside still increased and spread to the roadway, interfering with the passing of the tramway cars and omriibuses. Six constables asked the people to "Pass along, pleaSe," but as sotin as one crowd went another came, for the news ot the hat had spread rapidly. Then a stratagem was tried. It was announced that the hat would leave the shop by the back door, and the people hurried there. At once a handsomcab was called to the front door. When the horse had been quietened, the wearer and the hat edged sideways into the cab and were driven away. j Tpe wearer of the hat, Mrs A. I Taylor member of a well-known I women's club in the West End, ex- ] plained to an interviewer that the hat was bought in Paris, in the Rue do la Paix, and cost £l4l 4s. "It is quite a normal Paris hat. but apparently the people of Brixton could not understand it," she said. "Certainly it is intended for use when driving,and I was walking at the time it attrated attention. I wanted to make a purhase at the shops, and, therefore, dismissed the cab. Then the people began to erather round and made remarks about the hat and laugh. To escape I entered a shop. The people, however, would not go away, and I must have in the "shop for nearly anjhour and ajhalf."