Devonne Brown

Not many people knew of Mercucio Sibedow, haberdasher to the presidency. Mercucio grew up south of the Mason Dixon line. He learned from his daddy how to make hats and ties, leather gloves, fashion mens finishing touches. You’d think that finishing touches were woman’s work, but that would be absolutely not true. In the world of haberdashery, only the finest male frippery was wrought by man hands. Woman stitches were too trite. A female’s hands couldn’t ply the heavy cotton cording through leather, heavy wools or tweeds the needle required to plow as needed or necessary. Men’s wear required men’s work.

A woman could make a bonnet, but only one man, Mercucio Sibedow, was called to make the tophat to crown Lincoln. King of America, Freer of Men, Walker and Stalker of the Battlefields releasing the dead to go to their own heavens. Mercucio Sibedow had a weighty task. The top hat had to conceal and protect all the heavy thoughts of the king yet reveal the compassionate face beneath its brim, without smoke and mirrors, sometimes without whiskers.

Lincoln looked so much better with his beard, but that’s another story altogether.

Lincoln seemed six foot five or so anyway, a natural born giant. The hat would create the colossus the world needed, and Lincoln wanted to be. Mercucio merely added layers and inches of strength to support Lincoln’s already huge noggin. The hat held it with reverence while Lincoln thought, and wondered what in the world to do with all the dead that were piling up around him.

The hat gave him the courage he needed to instill bravery and nobility into the soldiers remaining on the fields to carry on for more days than they thought they had left to live. And though casualties were mighty indeed, some did live to see more day lights. Heavy was the head that wore that hat upon Lincoln’s shoulders.

Late at night, when Abe took off his hat, he crumbled like a cookie in a coffee cup of doubt. Without his hat, he couldn’t tell which one stunk the loudest, death or fear. He prayed to wake in the morning, to don the hat again, survey the mess, and carry on another four score and many more years to come.