Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1868-07-01
vILLAINOUS.
A Young Lady while sleeping
II Robbed Of her Hair.
The Dangers or Beauty and
HeartIessness OF Fashion.

we're required to establish the pretensions
of Memphis TO metropolitan airs, what
we are about to narrate must supply the
deficiency, and once for all convince the
incredulous, il there are any such. But
before proceeding further, let us, BY way
OF preface, lest we are so unfortunate as
to BIO discrediIed. assure the reader
that for the truth Of what fol-
lows we have the assurance OF one
whose reliability and veraciiy cannot be
called in question. This remark, at the
outset, will seem the more necessary to
those disposed 10 be skeptical, in view
Of the fact that we are compelled from q
sense of respect for the feelings Of those
of whom we are about to speak, TO with
hold, at least for the present, all names
and localities. Suffice 1t to say, that In
the eastern portion Of the city there re.
sides young lady Of responsibility and
rare personal beauty, who, on the even
ing of Thursday last, was despoiled oil
the most dearly priced of the many
charms nature had lavished upon her.
She was doomed, indeed, to suffer no less
a loss than that of her hair, and here,
again, that We may be understood as
speaking in no vague and indeiinate
terms, let rs add, her real and bona tide
hair, natural ouigrowth which fell, but
alas, no longer falls, in raven ringlets
over q brow and bust Of rarest mould,
through which the breeze, with dainty
fingers was wont TO play, and now must
sigh that it never may so daily with It
again. Not by the slow theft of disease
or the yet slower ravages of time was the
loss sustained. Oh, no misfortune SO
common aud inimitable would not
be worth the mention. A theft
indeed it was, but one more cruel
than either time or disease, which prey
upon every charm at once, would have
wrought. 1t wss thus: On the evening
in question the lady, unlocking the lux
uriance of her tresses, and allowing them
to fall loosely over her shoulders, threw
herself upon a lounge in the parlor of
her home, near by an open window,
through which an evening zephyr famed
her with its airy wings Thus at ease,
reclining and overcome by the drowsl-
ness Of summers afternoon, she
soon was fast asleep. Fast asleep, we
may be assured; for an hour, or
perhaps more, having elapsed, she awoke
to the painful discovery that during her
unconscious slumbering some unknown
wretch had desecrated the privacy fthe
apartment, filched from her head its
wealth of hair, and made off with the
same unknown to her. Only the stray
locks upon which her head had fallen
had escaped the sacrilegeous shears.
Only the mere stumps and stubs, which,
however much they might have become
a member ofthe prize ring, upon the head
of belle were something shocking to
contemplate-only these were left of
the luxuriaut lengths that had been.
Bewildered, shocked, and half doubling
her own senses, she rose from the lounge.
Was she really awake, or was it not
dream, from which she had not awakened?
Springing to a mirror her eyes only too
cruelty confirmed the dreadful apprehen'
sion that had flashed across her mind
when first, on awakening, she reache to
gather up her scattered tresses and found
them not. We can imagine her contem'
plating in the glass the reflection of her
altered self. Samson, shorne of his
locks while sleeping, could not have
realized more fully the loss of
hi. strength than must she have done the
loss of her beauty. But the thief and
the motive2 Who had been the Delilab,
and what could have aciuated so base
deed. Alas "the fatal gift of beauty"
True, her own experience had probably
taught her that there was value attach
ing to her missing tresses, be they upon
her own or the head of another. Could
they have been stolen then for sale, as a
necklace or a mantle would have been :
Had she been actually sheared as the
vulgar sheep for what her hair would
bring2 A stolen lock in the locket
of an admirer would be bearable,
but the sight Of her whole suit in the
wigmaker's window would not for mo-
ment do to contemplate. Such queries
she doubtless propounded to herself, but,
alas, no responses to set her heart at
ease were to come. If aught we could
say to console would not be to make
light of her aff fiction, we would simply
saw that in the fashion which induced
the theft, she may yet find relief, and
while her own tresses 60 to adorn the
head of another, she may, in turn, don
another's too.
PIcSIos. Several grand picnics have
been arranged to come of at different
points in the suburbs on the fourth OF
July-Saturday next. At James Park,
at the head of Vance street, a tete in aid
of the orphans fund Of st. Peters, is
announced, and all past efforts to cater
to the public taste by this congregation
are a sufficient guarantee that those who
attend that in question will pass the day
in the very pleasautest manner possible.
Simultaneous with the above, Ford's
Mace. in Chelsea, will be the scene Of q
nieuic. the proceeds Of which viii be de-
q. NJ nL-.L