Page images
PDF
EPUB

Weaving Panama Hats

[ocr errors]

By M. Glen Fling

T is not on the neck which
connects two continents
that the so called Panama
hats are made, but down
in the body of one of
those continents.

South of the Equator, where the days are hot and the people lazy, down in Ecuador and Brazil, the fibre hats, which have been the favorite of gentlemen for several summers, are woven by the hundreds and they are called Panama only by the Europeans

It was in 1623 that the 700 slaves, who had massacred their leader and the sailors and officers of the ship in which they had sailed under Pizarro from Panama, on their way to the mines of Peru, landed at Atacames, took possession of the town, murdered every man in the place, took the women for wives and formed the nucleus of a strange race called Zombargoes. These people are a mixture of pure African and Cayapa Indians and they are the real discoverers of the Panama hat.

[graphic][merged small]

The weaving of the finest quality of hats is done under water to keep the fibres from splitting and curling.

and Americans, most of whom believe them to be the product of the Isthmus, from which they are shipped.

The history of the Panama hat, broadly speaking, dates back to Pizarro, for when he, with his army, landed in northern Ecuador, at the place now called Atacames, he took with him a people who were destined to become the most famous hat makers of the world.

The women of Atacames are famous hat makers and although the very finest hats do not come from Atacames, this place produces an excellent grade and in larger quantities than any other town.

The best hats come from Jipijapa in the province of Manobi, but the output of Jipijapa is very meagre, for reasons which will be explained later.

As the Panama hat is the only manu

[graphic]

NATIVE WOMEN OF ECUADOR WEAVING FINE GRADE OF "PANAMA" HATS.

.factured product exported from South America, and because the profit made on this trade is above "fair," it would seem that American and European dealers would have to but place their orders and write their checks, to feel sure that the goods would be forthcoming. But in stead of this satisfactory condition existing, the importer has all sorts of difficulties in having his orders filled.

All responsibility rests upon the "middle" man, who must speak Spanish and be thoroughly conversant with the peculiarities of the natives with whom he is dealing.

It is not a bit of use to place an order with the hat makers a season or two ahead. In the first place the hat makers are an ignorant, irresponsible set, working only to secure food and tobacco, totally lacking in ambition or any sense of business obligation. It is impossible to organize them into any kind of a dependable working force, for they refuse to conform to any known set of labor laws.

A promise with these people is merely a gracious act to silence the "signor" and is made only to be broken, hence for a middle man to receive the promise of two or three families of hat makers that they will sell him their entire stock, means absolutely noth

ing. They will tell the very rext buyer who comes along the very same thing.

The only way to deal with these people is to scour the country tirelessly during the working season, gathering up all the hats available and paying spot cash for them. They must not be left in the huts over night, for a native considers it a clever deal to sell again a hat which has already been bought and paid for by some unsuspecting man, who has been "stupid" enough to leave it behind him for a few days.

middle

"No trust" is the motto of both buyer and maker, and "no trust," in every sense of the term, alone wins the cargo.

A buyer, engaged by a big English, American, German or French firm-and all these countries import their Panama hats from the same South American provinces-employs a whole army of middle men and it is very necessary that they should know each other and have a thorough understanding as to the districts they are to cover, else they bid against each other and pay treble what they need for their hats.

This bidding against each other is a great scheme among the natives, who sell in the Market Place. They take their hats to the public square and auction them off, even selling the hat they are

[graphic]

BLOCKING THE "PANAMA" HATS AFTER THE WEAVERS HAVE

FINISHED THEM.

I

wearing, which, by the way is usually of the softest, finest grade. It is not unusual for father and son to bid against each other when they spot an anxious middle man and thus get the price up. Here too several middle men buying for the same firm are apt to outbid each other by mistake. These are a few of the reasons why the cost of a first class Panama makes it a luxury.

Another reason is the scarcity of the finest grades. There are several causes for this. In the first place the natives. of the mountainous regions of Colombia and Ecuador have an aversion to selling a great number of hats to one buyer and a firm has to resort to all kinds of strategies to get a big order filled.

The more hats you want, the bigger price you are asked. For instance if you could buy a third grade hat for three pesos or $1.50, two hats of the same grade would cost you 12 pesos or $6.00 and an order of 50 hats would be looked upon with suspicion and very likely refused.

Although the first Panama hat was made something over 200 years ago, these natives have not progressed one step in their methods of trading and, although they could always sell all they can make to one firm, they prefer to deal with many, sometimes at smaller profits.

Four hours a day are the most a native will work, two in the cool of the morning and two after sunset when the dews of evening are falling. The women sometimes work for an hour or so when the sun rides high, but they cannot be depended upon to do so.

The stomach is the only master obeyed by these weavers. They work only when they want food or tobacco or drink and when the appetite is satisfied for to-day and there is a plenty for to-morrow no thought is taken for the day after. The whole world may go hatless, while they loaf about their mud huts or loll around the bazaars.

Thrifty, methodical Germans, driven nearly to distraction by this shiftless manner of working, have tried numberless times to establish factories, where the zombargoes would work 6 hours daily, five days a week, only to find their rooms deserted after the first pay day

and these strange workmen are crafty enough to demand each day's wage at the end of the day-and their workers scattered, drinking and rioting or perhaps lazily making hats in their own homes for less enterprising nations. All such plans of organization have had to be abandoned.

The nature of the work necessitates short hours. So delicate is the fibre of which the best hats are made that it splits and curls if worked with in the heat of the day. Early morning and late evenings are the only times that the finest hats can be woven and even then the work is done almost entirely under

water.

The plant from which the Panama hats are made is known to the natives as the jipijapa (pronounced hippyhahpa) and to the naturalist as the. Carludovica palmata. It belongs to the cactus family and grows in great profusion in Ecuador and Brazil and is found sparingly in Peru. The natives. of Peru steal this grass in great quantities from Ecuador, there being a tax put upon it by the Ecuadorian Government, and, as the weavers of Peru are skilled hat makers, they often reap a rich harvest from their stolen grasses. This grass must be gathered at just the right time. If too green it cannot be worked well and if over-ripe it shows streaks of red or black, which spoil a hat.

This particular palm grows in the shady midlands and is gathered in bundles and carried by the natives to their huts in the Andes, 6,000 feet above the sea. It is at this great altitude that the best hats are made and from here they have to be transported in slow stages by mules to the rivers and along the rivers in flat boats to the Pacific Ocean, or directly overland on the mules to Panama from whence they are shipped to all points.

Mules are scarce and in great demand in South America, hence the cost of transportation is enormous. One mule can carry only a small load of hats through the mountainous districts and the difficult passes make it impossible to use wagons. The usual rate of transportation by mule is $250 for 70 miles. Small wonder that Thomas W. Lawson was charged $300 for "the gem" of a

[merged small][merged small][graphic][merged small]

The rarity of these gems is due to the care needed in weaving them and the length of time and skill it takes to make them perfect.

The jipijapa has leaves about four feet long and it is these leaves which are woven into head coverings. They are gathered while young, their parallel veins are removed, and they are split into shreds a half inch wide. These shreds are not, however, separated at the stalk end. Each leaf thus resembles an enormous plume.

The split green leaves are immersed in boiling water for a short time, and afterward bleached in the sun till they are white. The fibres now are separated from the leaves and rolled in a peculiar

weavers can work by natural light only during the first hour of daybreak and the last hour of twilight. Through the rest of the day the sun is so warm and the air so dry that the fibres of the palm become brittle and break in the weaving. But at dawn and at twilight the air is sufficiently damp to permit of the making of hats of an ordinary fineness, though the extremely fine ones-those that cost from $100 up-are never worked on save by candle light.

The Indians-men, women, boys and girls-sit on the ground before their little houses to work, the hat block, a wooden sphere, between their knees, a bucket of water beside them. straw is pliable and every moment they

Their

[merged small][merged small][graphic][merged small]

Panama hats cannot be made save by those born and bred to the art. The little children of South America set to work on little native hats of coarse palm fibre as soon as they are 6 or 7 years of age. They pursue the work daily, advancing each season to a fibre of finer quality, and in twelve or thirteen yearsby the time, that is to say, that they are 20-they are able to make Panamas of a fairly good sort. though, never become expert enough to weave the finest hats. The best weavers -they who have the skill and patience to make the $100 and $200 hats-are always few.

The majority,

[blocks in formation]

hats appear in America unless they are worn into this country by a crowned head. The finest hat ever made was sent to King Edward when he was Prince of Wales. It was so light and delicate it could be folded into a package which would fit in his wallet.

If the King has taken the proper care of his hat it is as beautiful to-day as it was the day he received it. Mr. William C. Hesse, who is the Government authority on Panama hats, and from whom the illustrations for this article were secured, gives the following rules on the care of your best Panama.

"Don't crush up a Panama hat as though it were a cloth cap. It can not stand such treatment; it will break. The stories of the indestructibility of Panama hats are untrue.

Don't attempt to clean a Panama hat yourself, except with soap and water. It is folly to use lemon or acid on this sort of hat, and it is the height of folly to let the irresponsible and ignorant street

« PreviousContinue »