HATS ON!

It is possible to account for the enigma of Walt Whitman's conflicting reputations in Europe and in America in terms of the exaggerated respect which Americans hold for most things European and the concomitant deprecation of most things American. Old books, old hats, and old families are the better for a European origin. Certainly all visitors to the New World, from Columbus to Israel Zangwill, have commented with chary epigrams on this one commendable attribute of the natives. But respect is not synonymous with love; and it may be argued that too much respect and too little love for the European beaux arts and belles letters accounts for their lack of development in the United States.

As a first step toward the elimination of this excessive respect the Society of Independent Artists have tacked up at the entrance to its exhibition at the Waldorf in New York, the sign: "Keep Your Hats On If You Like." And the Secretary explains with the comments "Let the men keep their hats on, as they invariably do in European galleries. We want to get them to show less respect for art and more understanding and liking for it." Whether this apparently trivial act will reform the American attitude is much to be doubted. But as William Penn's refusal to doff his beaver before His Majesty's judges testified to his intellectual freedom, so may the emancipated American of the future stand unawed--and hatted before a Titian.