Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1879-02-04
"MY MONEY OR MY HAIR
The Awful Calamity that Has 0Vertaken
the Ladies' of %StuyVesant.

Rhinebeek IN. J) Cor. Now York Herald
Society here is in a hutter over an
affair which occurred on Saturday
last. There are three young ladies
boarding at Mrs. John Kilmer's
named Nettie Cowan, Vira Collins
and ida Newcomb. They have repre-
sented and do still claim that they
were travelling agents for Miss II. NJ.
Cunningham, of No. 10 Poplar street.
Boston, their business being to solicit
human hair from ladies and send it to
Miss Cunningham to be made into
switches" and also to receive
switches and forward them to Bos-
ton to be made over, agreeing, it is
said, to have them returned at the
end of six weeks at a cost of 1925
each, which could be paid upon the
receipt Of the switches by express.
A Mrs. Clapp came here from Stuyve-
SAINT on Saturday in search of the la
dies referred to. She states they were
in Stuyvesant about a month ago,
and received about SIS worth of or
ders, since which they had not been
heard from, nor had any of the hair
been returned. Mrs. Clapp sent a man
named Stephen Miller, of Undertook
to Boston, to see if he could find Miss
Cunningham. Mrs. Clapp says he re-
turned, saying there was no such
party in Boston. Armed with this
information Mrs. Clapp found Miss
Cowan at the telegraph office of the
Rhinebeck and Connecticut Railroad
Company, and, having officer Robin
son with her, demanded her hair or
the money.
Miss Cowan said she took orders for
hair four months ago at Stuyvesant,
and told her customers that the work
would be delivered in about six
weeks; but for some reason, of which
she knew nothing, it had not yet come
to hand.
Miss Cowan afterward said to the
writer; Il told Mrs. Clapp | had sent
the hair to Boston. She replied she
had sent a mar to Boston and no Miss
Cunningham could be found, and she
believed it was a swindle. She said
see valued her switch at So, aud her
expenses in coming to Rhinebeck were
So 80 additional, and she wanted
IS 30, and | gave it to her rather than
have any further trouble. 1t humili-
ated me and | felt disgraced, but |
couldn't help it. Altogether we took
about nine orders for hair in Stuyve-
SAINT, sixty in Hudson, and thirty or
forty in Poughkeepsie. | would 60 to
a lady's house and ask her if she saved
the combings of her hair, which all
ladies generally do. As a general
thing we got four or five ounces at a
house. The lady's name is taken on
paper, her address, ETC., and the hair
fastened to it, with the necessary
directions, and forwarded to Miss H..
NJ. Cunningham, No. 10 Poplar street,
Boston. No, 10 is her private office,
but the factory is outside of the city,
and that is why Mrs. Clapp's mar
couldn't find it. [ had been nineteen
months in the business, principally in
Maine. | cannot conjecture why the
goods are not sent back. We had no
such trouble in Maine, and ! feel my
position keenly. | have written to
Miss Cunningham, and to-day | tele-
graphed her, Why are not my orders
returned? You are getting me in
serious trouble; can't you come to
Rhinebeck?' | have not yet received
an answer to this dispatch, but hope
to to-day
Mrs. Clapp states that other Stuyve-
SAINT ladies will demand the return of
their hair or an equivalent in money,
and she does not hesitate to denounce
the strangers as swindlerst Further
news from Boston in relation to Miss
Cowan and her companions is looked
for with much interest by many fami-
lies along the Hudson,