The hat fetish is very curious and interesting. St. Paul's
directions about the meaning of hats in church are explicit if inexplicable. It is well established that a practising Jew must wear his hat when taking an oath, which is otherwise not binding on his conscience. But it is hard to find any authority which empowers a magistrate to insist that women shall wear hats in court, or stockings, or any other particular garment. There is no right to refuse justice even to a litigant in a bathing costume ; let alone to dictate upon the minor points of dress. The converse of the absurd attitude of some magistrates in this matter is a rule prevailing at the Florida and other places of late resort whereby no woman may dance in a hat, however she may otherwise be dressed. It is very strange to find these strict Pauline regulations in force in places which exist upon the anomalies of other laws.
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