Kossuth even influenced American fashion during his days in the United States. The most visible manifestations of this Kossuth-fashion-craze were the appearance of the so-called Kossuth hat (a tall black hat decorated with feather plumes in front), Kossuth trousers (Hungarian cavalry or hussar trousers), and the Kossuth beard (which surrounded the individual's face in a horseshoe fashion). The combination of these items, particularly as worn by Kossuth with his elegant noble demeanor, presented an overpowering spectacle of mid-nineteenth-century celebrity-hungry America. Some hucksters even named their wares after Kossuth. An example was the black fishmonger in New York who made an instant hit and lots of money with his "Kossuth oysters" that he was selling during the Hungarian statesman's visit to that city.Rico says Lincoln might be said to have grown a Kossuth beard, since he sported no mustache, as well...
27 November 2008
Civil War for the day
Ran across a reference to Lincoln wearing a 'Kossuth hat' in One Man Great Enough, and had to look him up:
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