hatter

1) A solitary miner – – miner who works withouta mate partner: sc. one who has everything under his own hat.

1869. Brough Smyth, `Goldfields of Victoria,' p. 613(`Glossary of Mining Terms'):

«One who works alone. He differs from the fossicker who riflesold workings, or spends his time in trying abandoned washdirt.The hatter leads an independent life, and nearly always holds aclaim under the bye-laws.»

1884. R. L. A.Davies, `Poems and Literary Remains,' p. 267:

«Oh, a regular rum old stick; . . . he mostly works a `hatter.'He has worked with mates at times, and leaves them when theclaim is done, and comes up a `hatter' again. He's a regularold miser.»

1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `The Miner's Right,' p. 37:

«Instead of having to take to fossicking like so many `hatters' – – solitary miners.»

2) By extension to other professions.

1893. `The Herald' (Melbourne), Aug. 28, p. i. col. 7:

«He had been a burglar of the kind known among the criminalclasses as `a hatter.' That is to say, he burgled `on his ownhook,' never in a gang. He had never, he told me, burgled witha companion.»