It is all right for stockbrokers on the exchanges to destroy one another’s hats if they like
But no man likes to have his hat snatched from his head by somebody he has not yet been introduced to
“It is all right for stock brokers [sic] on the exchanges to destroy one another’s hats if they like, on the principle that everything goes among friends,” The Pittsburgh Press opined in 1910. “But no man likes to have his hat snatched from his head by somebody he has not yet been introduced to.”
The former may have been a matter for debate, but the latter would likely find little argument from the individuals who suffered that combination of property damage and public humiliation. Such tactics were, however, only growing in popularity, targeting those poor souls who had made the grave mistake of donning a straw hat after September 15th.
“The best time to prevent such an outcome is now, before it happens,” the paper concludes. A dozen years later, the warning would prove prophetic.
No one could say precisely why or when the mid-September date had been chosen as the cutoff. The official end of summer – or even Memorial Day – seemed more obvious candidates. But in spite of September 15th’s rather arbitrary distinction, its vigilante enforcement only grew more severe as the years pressed on.
By 1922, the matter had hit a kind of critical mass. Milling about on in Mulberry Bend — a small, crooked stretch in Manhattan’s notorious Five Points (now Chinatown) — a group of youths kicked off the festivities a full two days prior to the universally agreed upon deadline. The youthful indiscretions grew less innocuous when the group made the miscalculation of stomping on hats belonging to a group of dock workers.
The workers began to fight back in a melee that spilled out into the street and stopped traffic onto the Manhattan Bridge. In spite of early arrests, the actions only intensified into a full-scale Straw Hat Riot.
On Amsterdam Avenue, there were reports of hundreds of hat snatchers. Others set up shop along Christopher Street, pulling straw hats off the heads of men through open windows as street cars passed by. The New York Times reported stories of bands of roving youth, 10-12 strong, lying in darkened doorways for an unwitting victim.
“At Madison and Thompson Streets a boy knocked off a man's hat with a long stick,” the paper reports. “Then other boys kicked the hat along the street until it reached another boy, waiting to jump on it.”
Entire blocks of the city were at a standstill. Many came armed with sticks, sometimes with a single nail protruding from the end. In spite of the widespread and sometimes violent nature of the Straw Hat Riot of 1922, however, few ultimately served any time.
“As they were all under 15 years of age, they were not arrested,” the Times explains. “Lieutenant Lenihan lectured them and sent for their parents, recommending a good spanking for their offspring. He also warned the boys that if they were brought in again for the same offense they would be locked up.”
While the activity of smashing straw hats hit is apex in 1922, the activity continued for subsequent Septembers. In 1924, a man was reportedly killed in such an incident. The following year, the Times once again warned readers,
The Ides of March held no more elements of social compulsion for ancient Rome than Sept. 15 holds for the male population of this Western Democracy. Beware! The fifteenth falls on Tuesday next and after that mystic notch in the calendar has been passed men may continue to wear straw hats at their peril.
One week later, however, the paper ran a front page story titled “Discard Date for Straw Hats Ignored by President Coolidge” above the fold. The paragraph-long piece describes a late-afternoon stroll by the 30th President, wearing a straw hat with a “somber” black band on the hot autumn day. He did so again the following day.
The President’s fashion faux pas is believed to have helped stomp out the September straw hat stigma once and for all.
Sources:
City Has a Wild Night of Straw Hat Riots https://www.nytimes.com/1922/09/16/archives/city-has-wild-night-of-straw-hat-riots-gangs-of-young-hoodlums-with.html
Goodbye to the Straw Hat https://www.nytimes.com/1925/09/13/archives/goodbye-to-the-straw-hat.html
Discard Date for Straw Hats Ignored by President Coolidge https://www.nytimes.com/1925/09/20/archives/discard-date-for-straw-hats-ignored-by-president-coolidge.html
The Straw Hat Riots https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=sg0bAAAAIBAJ&sjid=4EgEAAAAIBAJ&pg=1666,3136231