softer predecessor. Its owner gave one glance over his shoulder, and
"smiled a sickly smile," while it was very evident that

The subsequent proceedings interested him no more.

The fun grew fast and furious, the air was literally darkened with
flying hats of every shape and size, but all white. The stout tall
beavers were converted into footballs till their crowns were kicked out
and their brims torn off, when they were seized upon as instruments for
further torture. Some innocent member of the large fraternity, now, to
use a nautical phrase, scudding under bare _polls_, was pounced upon,
and over his unfortunate head the crownless hat was drawn till the
ragged remnant of its brim rested upon his shoulders. One poor creature
was thus bonneted with at least three tiers of hats, and was last seen
on the edge of the cockpit struggling with imminent suffocation.

At the height of the howling, scuffling, kicking and fighting a short
diversion was effected. A tall and portly broker appeared upon the scene
in an entire suit of new broadcloth. It was unmistakably new, its
brilliancy quite undimmed. Instantly a rush was made for him by the
fickle crowd. They swept him, as by some mighty wave, into the centre of
the room: they turned him round and round like a pivoted statue, and
examined him and patted him approvingly on every side. Then they made a
large ring round him and gave him three cheers. Not content with this,
with one sudden impulse they rushed at him again, and tried to lift him
upon the table, that they might see him better. But this the portly
broker resisted: he fought like a good fellow, and the crowd, tired of
struggling with a man of so much weight, gave one final cheer and went
back to the chase of the white hats.

We stayed about half an hour to watch these elegant and refined
diversions: at the end of that time our patience and the white hats were
giving out together. The din was deafening and the dust was rapidly
rising. The floor was strewn with scraps of papers and the mangled
remains of felt and beaver. Brimless hats and hatless brims, linings,
bands, rent and tattered crowns, and ragged fragments of the fray, were
all over the place. A writhing victim in gray, masked by a crownless
hat, was struggling upon the table to the evident danger of those
unhappy flowers; the president was calling across the tumult in
stentorian tones; but the tumult refused to fall, and the imperturbable
pages were bawli