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At The Hat Counter

At The Hat Counter image
Parent Issue
Day
11
Month
July
Year
1902
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

At The Hat Counter.

To be or not to be, that is the question; Whether 'tis nobler to give up twenty dollars

And wear a panama that folks won't notice

Or take an imitation that Tom, Dick and Harry

Will smile at as we pass them? To save, to pay

Three plunks and by that splendid saving show

The missus how she ought to save herself

When she buys hats! 'Tis a consummation

Devoutly to be wished. To save - to show

The world our cheaper side; aye, there's the rub!

For with our imitation goods what slurs may come

Concerning our position In the world,

Must give us pause; there's the respect

We would inspire in the grocer's boy;

And who would bear the butcher's quips and scorn,

The conductor's wrong, the iceman's contumely,

The pangs of one despised by dry goods clerks,

The insolence of hackmen and the spurns

That he who wears cheap headgear has to take

When by investing merely what would pay

His rent for half a month he might put on

A rakish panama? Who would hesitate

To grunt and sweat under a cheap straw hat,

But that the dread of something men might say-

The unheard slurs of people we don't know

And ne'er may pass but once - puzzles the will

And makes us often rob ourselves to win

Respect from those who never notice us.

Thus foolish pride makes monkeys of us all,

And thus the native hue of independence

Is sicklied o' er with the pale cast of fear,

And we that think we don't care what men say,

With guilty consciences hand up the dough!

-- Chicago Record-Herald.