The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-07-09

lucon, again, girls who are betrothed sell
their hair, with the consent of their future
spouses, to provide themselves with the
| wedding trousseau. And even well-to-do far
mers' wives, in spirit of prudence, will at
times part with their hair for serviceable
dress. Breton hair being so highly priced for
its fneness, it is not on fete days alone that
dealers display their tempting wares and
drive hard Bargains with the hesitating fair.
All the year round. peddlers, with packs OF
snowy cotton prints on their backs, tramp
from village to village, trying to tempt the
hundreds of girls they meet on the highway,
tending pigs and COWS, to part with their
faxen or raven locks for glossy looking red
and yellow cotton handkerchiefs worth about
franc each.
In the towns, it is the hair-dressers who in
sinuate to all the young girls that they give
as much as twenty francs q pound for long
black hair-this is the market price through
out the north of Brittany; but as female labor
is better paid in these parts, commanding
about franc day without board, they do
only a moderate amount of business, and this
chiefly with girls who have to lose their hair
for sanitary reasons, and, when they are
forced to sacrifice it, think they may as well
get from ten to fifteen francs for it from the
hair-dresser. The average value of head Of
hair SU1 pi6d-that is to say, not as it stands
but rather as it grows-is ten francs. The
finest crop, reaching far below the waist
hardly ever weighs pound or commands the
coveted golden napoleon. Years ago. before
the era of railways, the hair merchant used to
barter not merely handkerchiefs, but caps
ribbons, little shawls, scarfs, and plated ear
rings for head of hair; but nowadays when
hair is more in demand, and young girls or
their guardians have come to know more of its
value, he must be prepared to pay money in
the towns if he hopes to reap handsome
crop.
In Auvergne, which is quite out of the or
dinary tourists line of route, and is, as a
couple of maide3 ladies, whom we met last
year travelling in search of the economical,
in preference to the picturesque, confidently
assured us, the only part of France not over
run by English, and, consequently, the only
part where living is really cheap-in Au-
vergne the itinerant dealer in human hair
does business in perfectly public fashion.
He makes point of arriving in the village
on market-day or during the annual fete,
and might be easily mistaken for the travel
ling dentist or quack doctor, who extracts
teeth or extols the healing quality of his
drugs to the gaping peasants assembled in the
market-place.
At Ambert, St. Antheme, Arlant Olliar-
CUES, and Riom, their cabrioets and booths,
surmounted by little tricolor flags, are hud-
died together in the midst of the egg and
butter stalls, and grouped around them will
be peasant girls with baskets of fruit and
vegetables, accompanied by their parents or
their husbands; and all ready to sacrifice their
locks to the highest bidder. At Issingeaux,
on market-days, the sight is exceedingly
picturesque. The hair-merchant takes his
stand on low platform or wine-cask turned
| on end in front of a booth formed of canvas
and few planks and with his shirt-sleeves
rolled up to his shoulders, invites the women,
| in loud voice, to step up and show their hair
| l; 1of,,
in sabots from the surrounding country, come
to sell either a COW, a pig, or a couple of
| fowls, the women dressed in short serge
| petticoat and cotton apron, with a cap OF
a colOred handkerchief bound round their
head in winter, and in summer wearing q
| broad-brimmed straw hat; the men in short
apple-green cloth jackets and large felt hats,
similar to those worn 10y the privileged por-
ters at the Paris market.
One by one the girls will mount platform
or winecask, and throwing aside their caps
will loosen their tresses and
''Shower their ripping ringlets to the knee"
The bair-dealer makes rigid examination,
followed by an offer, and as soon as bargain
is struck the girl steps inside the booth, and in
five minutes the dealers assistant will have
cropped her close, when off she will run
amidst the laughter and ieers of the crowd,
mainder of the girls in the village from fo.-
lowing her example.
1t sometimes happens, however, that the
young men of the place, who sometimes look
upon the hair merchant with no kindly eye,
will commence assaihng him before he has
succeeded in packing up his traps and de-
camping He then has to trust to his horse
to carry him beyond the reach of the en-
ragged swains.
Mud, stones, rotten eggs, and every kind OF
filth at hand fall in showers upon the hood OF
his shabby cabriolet but, being tolerably
accustomed to this sort of thing, he takes
care to be provided with an excellent horse
which soon places him beyond the reach OF
} the mob, and next day he will sustain the
principal part in much the same scene in some
} adjoining village
In Normandy most of the girls have thei
! hair cut very short, with the exception of the
chignon, over which they coquettshly arrange
} their high caps which, like the Brittany
: coiffure, so completely covers the head thai
they appear to have lost or rather sold
, nothing at ALL
' When the hair merchant has finished his
} t0uT7ee in the provinces, he takes his mer
chandise to Paris or some other large town
= where he sells it, at prices varying from
, twenty to a hundred francs the pound. t,
e dealers who, after preparing it, make it uE
t into chignons, curls, bandeaux, Mates, etc
e On visiting one of the largest of these esta
D blishments, we found the four walls of tn,
Q sale-room lined round with Shelves reachin,
i from the floor to the ceiling, on which wer
$ piled up chignons upon chignons Of all quail
n ties and all shades of color, from raven blacl
: to the most delicate blonde, done up in packet
:, of six, the smallest number sold by the house