The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-08-09
STEALING HUMAN HAIR.
A Practice that Is Now Less Prevalent than
Formerly.

Formerly.
''The hairthief is a very rare bird of prey in
this vicinity now" remarked an old-time officer,
after reading the account of an attempt rnado
by man in Lincoln Park to clip the long braids
from young girls head. II can remember
though" he continued, when there was quite a
mania among thieves for this class OF work. 1t
was think, about the time that false hair was
all the rage-when it was Worn to greater
extent than it is now, and when the supply was
not up to the demand In those days women
were so anxious to have large show Of hair
that they even wore fax and such coarse sub
stitutes. Real hair scarce the demand
was so great, and thieves reaped harvest 1t
was to great extent kept quiet, as the victims
generally preferred keeping the loss of their
locks a secret rather than letting it be known
that they were wearing false hair
Il remember case once that was very promi-
nent at the time, but the thief was never cap
tured. A thief gained entrance into wealthy
South Side mans residence and ransacked the
house of its vauables young daughter-she
was about six teen, pretty and accomplishments
very proud of her hair 1t was rich auburn
very pretty and very rare. She was sleeping in
a room in the second story. The thief, not con-
tent with his other stealings, chlorOfOrlned the
young girl, and while she was in that condition
shipped her hair off close to her head. He got
no less than ten ounces The girl was a fright
the next morning, the wretch not leaving more
than ali inch of hair on any part of her head
The man offered a reward of 5000 for the thief
but he must have skipped the town..
"Most of the hair stealing though, was done
by men who made business of getting &C
QuainteG with young girls on the street AM en-
ticing them into saloon, where they were
drugged and robbed of their hair. There were
many cases of this kind, but, as l remarked, the
victims preferred keeping their mouths shut to
reporting the matter to the police
MANY is the story / could tell you from the
slums of drunken husbands who have compelled
their wives to cut off their hair and sell it to buy
liquor Men of that stripe are far worse than
the common thieves, yet the wives would bear
it rather than cause trouble. I tell you what
there are many women in this city who could
within the last six months, tell tales Of this
sort of treatment if they only wished to. |
remember family, who for years lived on Canal
street, whose troubles in this line were pitiful
The father was a sailor, who worked hard enough
in summer, but in winter spent oil h ..s time IN
saloons, and scarcely ever went home without
Being drunk. One dav his wife died. and they
did not have cent with which to defray the
expenses of the funeral. Two of the girls, in
their deep grief, cut off their hair and sold it.
Some of the neighbors also contributed, and a
coffin was secured. The father went home on
the day of the funeral in beasty state of in
toxcation. An hour before the mother and
wife was to be buried he awoke from his
drunken stupor He asked the eldest girl to get
him some whisky. She pleaded with him. There
was not cent in the house, and she could not
do it. The wretch gave her terrible beating
and then, before her eyes approached the coffin
and deliberately raised the head of the corpse
and cut off her long. dark hair He then rushed
from the house. He did not go back to the fu-
neral, but taken with delirium tremens and
died at the hospital
Another trick used to be to watch for
drowned women, and, before they were taken in
charge by the authorities, to shear their locks
from their heads. In those days real hair was
worth from So to S. an ounce, according to the
length and quality so you see eight or ten
ounces made neat sum of money for the thief
Now, it is different. Women save the comb
ings'-that is, the hair which comes out while
using the comb ard brush-and this is made
into switches and wigs so that the market is
always we'll supplied. The case at Lincoln Park
is the first have heard Of for years."