lasted in use for the lowest price goods until spirit polish became a reasonable price. The glue polish often smelt very nasty, and was always badly affected by a humid warm atmosphere. During the past few years when so many varieties of fibre have been utilized for making plaits, all kinds of polishing _media_ have been experimented with, even the household bees’ wax and turpentine has not been left out in the cold, but those that have made any lasting mark on the making of a straw hat are all of them in some way combinations of gums and spirit. The rapid evaporation of any liquid put on a blocked hat is an absolute necessity, it must also not be able in any way to soften the gelatine or other stiffening material, and it must leave a desired gloss on the hat without being glassy or “fatty” looking. Further, it must not materially harden the fibres. Some plaits are required quite bright; for these ordinary straw hat polish is correct; others are wanted with an “egg shell” shine, these are provided for in one or the other of the “Lustres” and “Silk Finishes” that are to be obtained. In fact, to-day there is no material of which hats are made that cannot be properly polished. The last advantage of the spirit polish is that it gives a slight water proofing to the ladies’ hat, and the mention of that brings up the question of the waterproofing of men’s boaters. A boater is generally made of rustic plait of which the saw-like edges lapping over each other form a surface similar to a tiled roof, and if it were possible to sew the plait with the serrations as regular as tiling, the result would be showerproof, but such regularity is impossible, and in order to make this most useful hat still more serviceable, one or two patents have been taken out in the direction of making it absolutely waterproof. As far as one can gather in the trade, the only method of rendering straw hats rainproof now extensively used is that known as the “Cravenette.” After the “shell” of the boater is sewn and stiffened, a special powder is applied carefully over the entire surface of the hat, after which a spray of the patent liquid is made to evenly and thinly cover the powder causing it to dissolve and form the waterproofing medium. After drying the hat is blocked in the usual manner, and when done, only an expert can tell from sight that the hat has been treated, as the colour is in no way deteriorated, nor are the fibres of the straw changed in any manner.