In the “problems you don’t see these days” category, we bring you this plea from the March 9, 1905 Skidmore New Era:
Did you ever go to a church or to a play and sit behind a ladies’ hat as big as a good sized wash tub? Of course you have. Well how do you like it? Not very well. What is to be done about it? Will you sit still the rest of your life and say nothing about it? We don’t see how you can, for you surely don’t go to church to gaze at a display of millinery, and you don’t pay your money to go to a show to see the latest styles in ladies’ head dress. When you go to church, you go to listen to the sermon; and to get the full benefit of a discourse you must be able to see the speaker. It is our belief that if the minister would take the matter in hand and ask at the beginning of each service that the ladies should remove their hats, that it would not be long until they would form the habit and thereby make it more pleasant for all who attend, and that it would not be long before services would be better attended, for have you not heard people say they would go to church if they could see the preacher. Almost all the ladies of our town remove their hats when they attend a play, but there are some who do not seem to care whether those sitting behind them see or not. If these ladies should attend a theatre in our larger cities they would be requested to remove their hats and then if they did not, they would be asked to retire.
There you have it. Ladies, remove your hats! It will improve church attendance and ease the mind of the editor.