STRAW HATS FOR HORSES

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Oct 9, 1893

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 19, No. 48.

STRAW HATS FOR HORSES.

DURING the great heat which oppressed the southern parts of France in the summer of last year, a humane and inventive horse owner in Bordeaux provided all his horses with straw hats. At first everybody jeered at horses’ hats, as they did at Jonas Hanway’s umbrella. But the innovation soon justified itself as so practical that everybody wondered that he had not thought of it before, and it came to be regarded as so indispensable that before the summer ended nearly every horse in cabs, coaches, omnibuses, wagons, and carts, in town and country, had some kind of hat on his head. The new straw hat, which is now becoming a great article of trade in the South of France, covers the eyes and forehead of the horse, while openings are left for the ears. A sponge is kept in the inside of the hat, and this is moistened from time to time with vinegar, so as to keep the horse’s head refreshingly cool.—Our Dumb Animals.