The first silk hat produced in Baltimore is said to have been made by one Victor Sarata in 1838, though some contend that Jacob Rogers was the first to make such goods; but as the silk hat was looked upon as an innovation, and its introduction opposed by hat makers of that time, as being detrimental to their interests, it is more than probable that Mr. Rogers did not give encouragement to the manufacture of an article likely to supplant the use of his own make of "Beavers," "Russias" and "Bolivars," and we may thus safely give credit to Victor Sarata for first producing in Baltimore this new article of fashion, originating in Paris, the city from whence he came. Until the year 1850, Paris fashions were those generally adopted in the leading American cities, after which English fashions in hats entirely superseded the former, becoming so popular that not only large importations of English hats were made, but American manufacturers invariably copied English styles, and indulged in the degrading habit of pirating English trade-marks, for the purpose of increasing their sales. Happily, the necessity for such pernicious practices is at an end, for during the past ten years the great strides made by American manufacturers in the improvements of hat making place them in the foremost rank of that industry; in fact, with those elements of manufacture necessary to perfection, such as fineness of texture, lightness in weight, and elegance in style, American hatters to-day hold supremacy in the whole world, and, favored by relief from the tariff tax upon raw materials from which hats are made, all of which is of foreign growth, America will be found sending to the countries which taught her the art, examples of this industry far superior to those her teachers ever furnished her. [Illustration: THE "DERBY" OF 1889.] NEW DEVELOPMENTS. No. 13. A strange fact is that the Civil War, so disastrous in its effect upon the industries of Baltimore, was followed at its close by the rise of a new enterprise, of manufacturing straw hats, which so increased and extended that in number of establishments and volume of production it soon outrivalled those of fur hats in their most prosperous time, thus securing to this city a kindred business, greater in extent and importance than the one which had, by force of circumstances, been wrested from her. The good reputation which the products of the new industry has acquired in every part of the country has contributed not only to the prosperity of the city, but has assisted by adding credit for the high standard of its manufactured goods.