The Abbeville messenger. (Abbeville, S.C.) 1884-1887, 1885-11-03
MATCHING LOCK OF HAIR
Outcome OF a Hair Merchants
Advertisement,
A Husband aud Wife Who Thought Each
Other Dead Reunited.

~" AAApoAoOASs "A l0lCIl lduy VI
noble blood, who had been my friend
for years, wrote me a few months ago,
inclosing a lock of hair, which was a
peculiar shade of drab and silky fine
ness. She wanted me to match it, and
I set about doing 80.
81 inserted an advertisement In the
principal Philadelphia, New York and
Boston papers, Offering a liberal re-
ward for a switch OF the desired quail
ty and color. One day a woman of
about 70 years of age. shabbily dressed,
but with a form and face that Venus
might have envied, entered my office.
"1 came in answer to your adver-
tisement," she said, and removing her
hat unbound a luxuriant coil of hair
that called from me an Involuntary
cry Of admiration. will this do? she
asked.
Il examined her hair and compared
it with the sample sent me by the
Countess. The two were so similar
that when 1 mixed them together ]
could not distinguish one from the
other.
"'This hair is exactly what I want
I said, and 1 will give you 5000 an
ounce for it,
Take it off, she said, with a ner-
vous trembling of her voice that at
once attracted my attention. Il an
starving. 1 and my baby, and what
you are willing to pay is a fortune to
u.s.
II became interested and questioned
her. After a little hesitation she told
me her story. Her husband had been
a sea captain and shortly after they
were married had sailed for the west
coast of Africa. His vessel was never
heard of after leaving port, and it was
presumed that she had foundered at sea
and all hands had been lost. The pre.
sumed widow had struggled to main.
tain herself and infant child. but with
Indifferent success. Finally, wher
suffering from the pangs of hunger
she had read my advertisement an
fastened to my place of business, pray,
ing inwardly that her hair, which had
been her husbands pride, might be OF
the required shade.
"Well, 1 bought her hair, which
weighed four ounces, and paid her $500
for it. 1 sent the switch to nv Gus.
toner, the Countess, and wrote her the
history of the hair. She is a woman
OF great wealth and goodness of heart
The return mail brought me a letter
authorizing me to pay the poor little
sailors widow $1,000 extra. I wrote
an account of the affair, which was
published. One day, about three
weeks after the publication of the
story, a man, who was bronzed and
bearded, came into my Office very much
excited. He held in his hand a COPY
of a New York paper, and unfolding ii
pointed to my story.
Scan you give me the address o,
this woman?' he asked eagerly. She
is my wife. ! thought her dead"
"NWhile I wrote down the address h.
told me his story. His vessel had been
shipwrecked on the African coast, and
he and two others of the crew alone
managed to reach the shore. It was
several months before they managed
to reach a civilized port. He immediate.
~ sent word of the disaster to the
owners of the foundered vessel and
to his young wife. From the former he
received a reply, but he heard no word
from his wife, and when he reached
Philadelphia he discovered that she
had mysteriously disappeared. One
day in looking over a p he came
across my story and had hurried to my
office to learn further particulars. ]
sent him to his wife in my carriage,
and you can imagine what occurred at
the meeting, for each believed the 9TH
er dead. l wrote to the Countess, Civ
ing the sequel to the story, anL the re.
suit was that the ship- wrecked cap
tain now commands her yacht, and
the wife who sacrificed her hair to buv
bread sails with him On every voyage"
philadelphia Times.
Getting Right Down to Business.
"The first thing to be done" said the
nav -. ~