Corbetts 26 April

This day, 26 April, is known in Concordia, Kansas as ‘Corbetts’. It is now an almost forgotten fact that from the mid-18th to the mid-19th centuries, a process called "carroting" was used in the making of felt hats. Animal skins were rinsed in an orange solution of the mercury compound mercuric nitrate. This process separated the fur from the pelt and matted it together. This solution and the vapours it produced were highly toxic. Its use resulted in widespread cases of mercury poisoning among hatters. Symptoms included dementia and hallucinations. All very interesting, but what has this got to do with 26 April? Well, Thomas P. Corbett, an Englishman moved to New York City in 1839. At a loss as to how to earn a living, he became a hatter. One day, with stunning clarity of purpose, he became a re-born evangelical Christian and changed his name to Boston. Furthermore, convinced that Jesus had been a hatter, Corbett began trying to imitate Him by wearing his hair very long. Sadly, on July 16, 1858, in order to avoid the temptation of prostitutes (always a wise move), Corbett castrated himself with a pair of scissors (never a wise move). Afterwards he went to a prayer meeting and ate a hearty meal. At the outbreak of the American Civil War, Corbett (now a soprano) joined the Union army and on 26 April 1865 he and 25 other Union cavalry troopers cornered John Wilkes Booth, President Lincoln’s assassin, in a tobacco barn in Virginia. Corbett shot Booth dead. Corbett was immediately arrested for disobeying orders but the charges were dropped and Corbett received his share of the reward money, which amounted to $1,653.85. Fearing a sudden onset of sanity, Corbett returned to being a hatter and moved to Concordia, Kansas where he lived in a hole dug into a hillside. 26 April - Mad as a Hatter Day.