High Hatted Ladies

The newspapers, for the purpose oí getting something pirturesque for their Sunday editions, have taken up the war against high hats. The possibilities in the way of illustration are tivinendous. When you are run out of something to write about, go for woman's dress. It will never fail you. Women's hats at the theatre! ery the grumblers. Down with them! "maat mutatious and atrocious of all," Bcreechea Col. P. Donan, "behold the hideous headache hatehing, deformad, skület like abominatlon, filled ■with impossible botanical and ornithological monstrosities. " "Give us woraen," quoth the gallant colonel, "and not gaudy clotbes racks and busband angling fashion platee." Papers Hem with illustrations of broken heartal ba ld headed men twisting their necks off in the vain attempt to shoot their eyes around the giant brim of sorne lop eared theatre hat. How they pity themselves, the dear men. It's all very wo!l. But what if the women on their part had something to complain of? What it' it could be charged against the men and proved on them that they are guilty of worse theatre conduct than the wearing of even the four storied of the pagoda hats? In short, gentlemen, what can you say in def ense of that utterly accursed and unspeakably nasty habit you have of tramping out like horses between the acts every night at the theatre and going to get a drink? Women's bata at the theatre may look like tbese that the artist fcas earicatured, but if they weníten times worsethey would still not be an offset to the men who squeeze past ladies and rush out in procession every time the curtain rolls down. At least that is what the women say. They declare that the men rub their dusty trousers' Ehins past the bright silks and velvets, taking the luster off the one and the pile off the other. Ladies must rise for them, catching their skirts againsc the chairs and tearing out the drapery and tie strings of their gowus. They must stand there, a spectacle to gods and men till the oily, black boots have rubbed along by them, and the knees have toni out and carried away the loops in their dresses. Then the hoofs olatter up the steps like a cavalry company, and the ladies sit down, only to be routed up again by the tramping cavalry. The troop come in gmellinK- heavensl how they do símil, and sit down all about, clearing their throats, expectorating, and fillIng the air with their" tobáceo and whisky breaths. The getting up and sitting down must be gone through altogether some twelve times whenever a woman goes to a flve act play. The women's dresses are spoiled, their stomachs sickened and their patience is worn to the bone. Now, say the ladies, have we not just cause for complaint? Are the grievances all on the masculino side of the houset They pause for an answer. In times past and in all times it is trua there have been intervals of monstrous feminine head covering. Women, being shut out from the large interests of humanity, are pt to overdo the small interests in which they live and move. Women's headgear bas been sometimes four feet high. Well autbenticated picttlKS show that within the last three centuries bonnets like tlioseln the second illiistration bave been worn by the highest ladie&of rte lands. They were rendered adilitionully high by their hats. Old engravings and paintings of the continent of Europe represent the leaning tower headdress ezhibited in the figure on the right. In the days of our own grandmothers bonnets lik that upon the central figure were worn. They were cal led "sky scrapers," and across the formidable lookmgbrim in front were draped black and white cmbroidered veils, done in sük by the delicate flngers of maidens fair, "their ownselves.'1 It was before the days of machine embroidery. Many of these beautiful oM vi'ils aiv even now in possession of maidens ns fair as those who wrought the delicate silken mtting, but who are greatgranddaughters of the dames that wore the sky seraping lior.nets. On the right is yet another monstrous hat It is of the style worn by tha court ladiee of France in 177. At that time nomen rolled their hair back over a cushion and iwdered it white, in the style of hapless Queen Marie Antoin"tte. So, perhaps, it is a omsolation, though a slim one, to know thnt. roman are no more absurd than they alwavs were. The question of the obstructioni-t tbeatre hats is U'iiig very earnestly i!icnssed at present. It Uu little odd, by the In , that no objection has been raised agaiust these hats In church, though the same ones are worn to both churth and theatre. Parka{a t!ie stock of Christian grace is so much larger in a church than in a tbeatre that the nuisance is put up with unoomplainingly there. lf we are so fond of imitating British fasbions, we ceitaiuly ought to ïollow the best of than. In London bonnets are only worn in tbeatres of the lowest cla-s. In the best onea romeu, like men, are lareheaded, A woma:i looks so much prettier 1 lareheaded than in any kind of a bonnet thai it is a pity she wül not it without a bonnet. The. reason she to it is that it coste so much money she feels a thuugb she must show it off at all hazard. Wliv not have low crowned hats made on purpoM for the tbeatre;