[PW] Origin of "Talking through his hat"?

[Jeanne Schramm]

Here is a mention (without attribution) from the U.S. presidential election
of 1888:
http://www.writersblock.ca/winter1999/origins.htm


On 9/27/07, John Costello <cos at indeterminate.net> wrote:
>
>
> I'm looking for the likely origin of the phrase "talking through his hat",
> alternately "talking into his hat."  I've checked online resources and
> database collections, including Oxford references.
>
> Google Books does not show an entry earlier than the 1880s, though
> accounts of Joseph Smith recount that he talked into his hat to translate
> the Book of Mormon, which would have been before 1880.  Are there earlier
> references?
>
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