The spirit of democracy. [volume] (Woodsfield, Ohio) 1844-1994, 1857-04-01


At the boarding house where Dave and
his friends put up are number Of servant
girls, and it is an idosyncracy of servant
girls to take their share of toilet articles,
such as hair oil, perfumes, sc, while they
are rejuvenating the apartments of the
boarGers. Dave and his friend Robert
were very careful of their respective toilets,
and in courting way, had deem paying
extra attention to personal adornment, for
long time They were in the habit of
getting pint Of hair oil made up at the
druggists at one time; and finally they
were in the habit of finding that pint of
this costly hair oil wouldn't last a week,
and that all the servant girls in the house
emitted the same perfume that they did.
II was not long before they came to con-
cusion in the matter. So one evening
finding that the hair oil cruiSe was empty,
they took the bottle which had contained
it, and straightway went to Mathews Drug
Store. There was a whispered converse
tion with laughing clerk, mixing of va
Irious articles in a pint bottle, and
the following was marked on the prescrip-
ton book as the contents:
OF Lac Asafetida-(milk of asa
fetida, which for the informa-
tion of our readers we will state,
is highly concentrated extract
of that delicious drug,)-
of this ounce.
OF Liquor PostasSe-a fluid slight
ly celebrated for its corrosive
power, having the property of
taking the hair off Il dog. in
ten seconds ounce.
Balsam of Fir-the stickiest and
gummiest article known. Il ounce.
Honey. l ounce.
Alcoholic make these ingredients
fluid. :. . -. pint.
This was well "shuck" and deposited in
the usual place Occupied by the hair oil
The next moaning Sunday Dave and Bob
dressed themselves for church, and after
finishing themselves Travelled down stairs,
but they came up another stairway in a few
seconds and secreted themselves in room
adjoining theirs, where through couple of
panes of glass over thedoor, they could see
everything that went on. After the peo-
pie of the house had gone, two or three
servant girls came into Dawes room.
"Whist, Molly" says large red headed
one "Msthur Dave has some more of
the lie, and me hairs as dry as powdher;
let's have a reglar fix up, wild de folks all
away!" This was acceded to, and they
all went to oiling their locks, being very
lavish with the fluid, which was quite thin
in consequence Of the alcohol. In few
moments red head says:
"Wirra that smells so?" with her nose
turning slyward.
"Sure its the parfume,'' interrupted a
short and dumpy specimen with her hair
down her back.
Parfumc-indade"-s red head; that's
not parfume, that's the rale bad schmel."
"Mebbe," says dumpy, sits the Patch
chew-lee { (Patchouli,) I've heard that
Patch-chew- schmels dreadful at the
fust, a pershun must git used to the schmell
tbefore dey like it.-Sure its parfume
usea~by the q~aAty"
This sasisGed red head, and after thor
ough 'ilinga frey left the room. In about
two hours the boaraeys came home fro m
church-"Good gracious,>what is it?"
"Bless my soul, MIR. c., kSss.all faint;
oh! my dear, there must be an unclessr, an
imal in the room!" and a thousand other
expressions were heard, as the boarders
got sniff at the patch-chew-lee when
they entered the house. The master and
mistress of the house were puzzled, con-
founded, indignant, and in vain cndeavored
TO discovered the locality ofthe 'schmell.' u
| At dinner time there were not half doz-
en- boarders at the table, aud those that
were there were rapidly thinking of back
ing out, as the three girls who had been
cling" were attending 20 them.-Finally
dinner was given up, and with doors and
windows opened, the inmates alternately
froze and suflocated. The day was dire
one to them, but it wore away some way.
i At night the three girls attempted to
comb their hair. The alcohol had evap.
Grated leaving the balsam of fir and honey,
and they might as we'll have attempted to
comb bundle of shingles. At the very first
dash that red head made, her comb caught
and through the influence Of the postassa
at the roots, the whole mass of front hail
came off at the side of red heads Uranium
which she discovered with a yell that would
have rendered cannibal envious. The
same result attended the rest Of her hair
with the exception Of enough to do up as
a scalp lock to ornament with feathers
The two other girls met the same fate, and
about ten O'Clock that night they might
have been seen wrapping up their lost
Pitch, chew-leed" locks in pieces of paper
T - next morning they were informed by
the mistress that she did not desire tc
employ bald-headed servant girls. and
with their "chist," they departed in almost
a scalped condition. The discovery O
Dave and Bob's connection with the trans
action was not known till lately, but theil
toilet articles have been as sacred from
touch as the tomb at Palestine
MoRAL-Whcn boarding see that the
servant girls are attended to in the way
of ti'iet articles.