"Oh! for a few persons only; for those who know how to appreciate the
value of the pains I bestow upon them. Now, take the aristocracy--
there is but one man there who has truly comprehended the Hat; and
that is the Prince de Bethune. How is it that men do not consider, as
women do, that the hat is the first thing that strikes the eye? And
why have they never thought of changing the present system, which is,
let us say it frankly, ignoble? Yes, ignoble; and yet a Frenchman is,
of all nationalities, the one most persistent in this folly! I know
the difficulties of a change, messieurs. I don't speak of my own
writings on the matter, which, as I think, approach it
philosophically, but simply as a hatter. I have myself studied means
to accentuate the infamous head-covering to which France is now
enslaved until I succeed in overthrowing it.
So saying he pointed to the hideous hat in vogue at the present day.
"Behold the enemy, messieurs," he continued. "How is it that the
wittiest and most satirical people on earth will consent to wear upon
their heads a bit of stove-pipe?--as one of our great writers has
called it. Here are some of the infections I have been able to give to
those atrocious lines," he added, pointing to a number of his
creations. "But, although I am able to conform them to the character
of each wearer--for, as you see, there are the hats of a doctor, a
grocer, a dandy, an artist, a fat man, a thin man, and so forth--the
style itself remains horrible.
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