The "resorte" brim was an American invention, introduced about the year 1863; it was simply a wire held to the edge of the brim of a soft hat with a binding, and so extended as to maintain a flatness, and permit its conforming to the head without destroying its outlines. This invention was patented, and its extensive use brought large profits to the owners of the patent. The event of the Civil War gave an increased stimulus to the use of the soft hat. With the South in a state of excitement, alarmed with portentous fears of a sectional war, such matters as pertained to elegance of dress were banished from the minds of its people, and the North, with a large army recruiting from its citizen class, brought the universal practice of economy among the American people, limiting their indulgence in expenditures for articles of dress considered as luxuries, and the silk hat falling under that ban, dropped almost into absolute disuse. With the return, however, of prosperity, an apparent desire for a more dressy article was manifest, and the stiff felt hat generally denominated the Derby was introduced. The derby was made in various proportions of crown and brim, as the caprice of fashion dictated, and was, as its name might imply, an adopted English style; it gradually grew in favor with Americans, until it became the universal fashion of the day, maintaining that position for several years. From an increased popularity it has been brought into such common use as to again create a growing desire for an article claiming something bearing a more exclusive mark of gentility or dignity, which the silk hat meets, and the silk hat is again so increasing in use as to establish the certainty of its maintaining with the American people its wonted place of priority as the article of genteel head-dress, marking the standard of fashion and style. Baltimore, always noted for its readiness in accepting foreign fashions, must have been among the first of American cities to adopt the silk hat, which was claimed to be of French invention, but if there be any foundation for the following narrative, the first silk hat was not made in Paris, but in China. It is stated that a French sea-captain, while sailing on the coast of China, desiring to have his shabby napped beaver hat, which had been made in Paris, replaced by a new one, took it ashore, probably to Calcutta or Canton, to see if he could procure one like it. As Parisian styles were not in vogue in China, he found nothing of closer resemblance than the lacquered papier-mache or bamboo straw. The keen shrewdness of the Chinaman, however, quickly suggested a near imitation in silk-plush. This is said to have happened in 1830, and the captain returning to Paris, showed the Chinaman's product to his own hatter, who, upon perceiving its beauty, at once attempted its introduction as a fashion, which has long ruled nearly the whole world.