Show D DIMINISHING E ENGLISH w GLISH HEADS J JAn An English physician on the author authorIty authority Ity of one of the largest hat makers In Inthe inthe the United Kingdom gravely gravel an announces announces that the British head Is grow growing Ing smaller The hat maker it ap hitri t le Is making and selling more small hats than ever before in his history And the learned physician hastens to the conclusion that ther there is a big diminution in the national brain box Now we suppose a statement like that made by a citizen of another nation w would uld be regarded b by England ao as a ca cases t s bells betil For our own part we n e are not inclined in inclined to regard the doctors theo theory se seriously seriously Indeed we doubt if he Intend Intended ed himself to 10 be taken seriously Dr Osler It will be remembered created a terrIble uproar with his assertion that when men reach the age of 40 years the they have passed the period of their greatest usefulness and at 60 If our recollection Is correct they should be chloroformed When taken to task Dr Osler said he never had any Idea that his statement would be taken expressing his real opinion The English doctor talked to the hat hatman hatman man at the Wrong nong time It was just before the Fourth of JUl July and that date in history always causes a diminution dimi diminution nution In the British brain box Further Fur Further ther diminution Is caused by a recollection recollection lection of the war of ISI 1St when Eng England England land again undertook to discipline the United States with disastrous results to herself Then too the Boer war was not calculated to cause any enlarge enlargement enlargement ment of the British head to put the ea ease e as mildly l as possible for it took that gre great t nation more than a year to whip a handful of Dl Dutchmen In South Africa Joking aside it is not fair to base a sweeping theory such as the one quoted quoted ed on the testimony of a single hatter If a census were taken of all the hat hatters hatters of Great Britain and statistics were carefully complied compiled and If those statistics should show that the aver average average age hat size this year Jear Is appreciably smaller than the average hat size of former years ears it might prove something It might even prove proe that our English cousins who have brain boxes of the larger sizes are demonstrating the value of their possession by leaving old England and coming over to dwell In inthe the United States |