The Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Or.) 1862-1899, 1879-09-19
A New Custom.

ST care not who writes the history of
nation, if I can read its advertise
ments," remarked Sir Isaac Newton.
There is no doubt that he was right.
Historians cannot be trusted to write
the simple truth, for even if they are
wholly unprejndiced, they are neverthe-
less constantly deceived by the authori-
ties upon whom they rely. The student
of advertisements, on the other hand,
learns the wants and habits of people
from the most trustworthy source. Had
the old Romans advertised in q manner
worthy of an intelligent people, we could
learn from the advertising columns of
the press of the period more of the real
daily life of Rome than any quantity
of able German historians could now
teach us.
It was through brief advertisement
in an English newspaper that one of the
most remarkable and peculiar of the
domestic habits of English life was
made public. Perhaps it is hardly ac-
| curate to say that it was made public for
the first time, for the peculiar habit, or
custom or question must have been long
familiar to Englishmen living at home.
Still, no one outside of England sus-
pected its existence until the advertise
ment to which reference has been made
appeared.
It seems that a young English lady re-
| Gently left her home and disappeared
| totally from the knowledge of her par
ents. Being intelligent people, they,
of course, did not employ detective
| to find out the missing girl and to
compound with her abductors for half
| her value, but they inserted an adver-
| tisement in daily paper, describing her
appearance and offering reasonable re-
| ward for her recovery. The peculiar
| feature of the advertisement was the fact
that, after setting forth the height,
weight, age, dress, and color of the eyes
| of the desired young lady, it mentioned
| that she was sstattooed on the left leg. +"
From the way in which this assertion
was made, it is clear that the fact of the
| tattooing was not regarded by the adver-
tiser as anything unusual. In fact, from
| the comments since made by the English
| press, it is very evident that in England
it is regarded as the customary and
| proper thing to tattoo the youthful femi-
nine leg.
After recovering from the shock in
separable from suddenly learning the
| existence of so extraordinary custom in
| England, the thoughtful foreigner at
| once begins to question its origin and
| motive. The tattooing must obviously
be done as measure either of utility or
ornament. and it is by no means easy to
decide which motive is the true one. All
statisticians agree that there are q great
many girls in England, and certain Eng
lish weekly newspapers have during the
last few years dwelt with much empha-
sis upon the tendency of the English
| girl of the period to defy the conven-
tlonal restraints of former days. May
| we not, then, assume that English girls
are prone to stray away from home, and
that being SO very numerous, they are
| frequently mislead and forgotten. We
have here sufficient explanation Of the
| tattooing problem. The careful British
parent desires to mark his girls for
Identification. If he pastes labels
on their backs or attaches tags
to their belts, the tags and labels can
readily be torn off or lost. To
brand girl with hot iron, or to slit
her ear, practices which are in vogue
| among cattle-drivers, would obviously
be open to serious objections. The care
full parent, in these circumstances, falls
back upon tattooing, and in order not to
| disfgure his girls, he has them tattooed
where the indelible mark is not, as a
rule, constantly forced upon the public
| gaze.
The advantages of the custom are un-
deniable. Let us suppose that the girls
of the Smith family, for example, are
marked ..S" in diamond. Now, if old
Mr. Smith, when taking his nine girls to
Brighton, mislays one in the railway
station, or forgets another and leaves her
in cab, he has merely to advertise that
on such a date girl marked "'S' in a
diamond" was lost or mislaid in such a
place, and she will soon be restored to
him. Or suppose that the same Mr..
| Smith finds girl in an omnibus whom
he fancies belongs to him, but whom
Mr.. Brown rightfully insists is his pri-
| vate girl. There need be no dispute
about the matter. Mr.. Smith has only
| to say to Mr.. Brown. "How are your
girls marked?' Mr.. Brown replies "sJ
B. with a STAR An inspection of the
| disputed girl shows that Mr.. Brown is
| right, and there is at once an end OF the
dispute. Thus, we see that tattooing a
/ girl as means of identification might
be very useful practice, and if this is
the motive of the present custom of tat
tooing English girls, it commends itself
to our approval.
Dub Y u1tO POooADAC A1Ae5AAoAi
girls are tattooed as purely ornamental
process. It should be noticed that the
original advertisement which first called
attention to the matter merely asserted
that the missing girl was tattooed on the
left leg. The pattern of the tattooing
was not described, and we have nc
means of knowing its precise character.
A year or two ago an Arkansas young
lady, desirous of making brilliant fig.
ure at ball, called paint brush and q
quantity of red and white paint to her
aid, and produced on those present al
the ball the impression that she was
wearing beautiful and costly pair o1
striped stockings. What the Arkansas
young lady did in rough and tempo
rary way, her British sister can dc
neatly and permanently, with the helI
of skillful artist in tattooing. o.
course the colors employed would bt
only the light blue of the tattooing and
the pure white of the original ground
but an infinite variety of tasteful pat
terms could be used. So far as the
purely male mind can judge, this is ths
only way in which tattooing can be nse6
as an ornament in connection with tht
legs, and If the motive which influences
the young ladies of England is one O
economy, they are certainly deserving o
praise.