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

[John Costello]

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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