Morning journal and courier., 1886-10-27
TONS OF HAIRPINS.
Lots of Money Made Out of Woman,s
Favorite Mechanical implement.

Favorite Mechanical implement.
[From the Detroit Tribune
Chow many hairpins does lady wear ir
a year?" repeated q clerk on Woodward
avenue, with a smile. ''Well, that just
depends on how many she loses. Many lad
les sow their hairpins as they go, while Others
are careful that they only use one box 8
year. Then, too, it just depends on how
many daughters one has. We sell hun
dreds of pounds a year-that is, of the plain
kinds. We've seen the time when we could
pretty nearly pay our rent out of the hair
pin trade, but since these fancy hairpins
have come into style that could not be done.
Then, too, this fad of shingling off the back
hair makes a difference. One can't wear
pins, you see, in short hair, and with the
hair drawn up on top one doesn't need so
many"
''We buy our hairpins," said another
dealer, ''by the hundred weight, and seu q
gross day, that is of the English steel"
Chow many do you sell at timea''
"Oh, we have any number of customers
who buy pound at time. If a lady has 8
family of daughters pound lasts only 8
short time"
s'What becomes of thems"
s'Well, you'll have to ask some one else.
1HdG d y0G W Oc SOlfcu 1u0y
slip out of sight most certainly and in the
most unaccountable way"
els there no way of making them so they
will be secure?"
GA good many ways have been tried. Some
think the crimped pin the most secure.
The silk pin, French invention, which is
covered with silk the exact shade of the hair,
stays in place better than the steel pin. There
is a wonderful variety of hairpins. The gilt,
silver, shell, invisible-all these come in diff
ferent sizes, and are light, smooth, ,aud comfort
able. Then there are rubber pins for dark
hair and amber for golden locks. There are
a great many fancy pins worn, and this, of
course, takes from the sales of the common
kinds"
:'What hairpin do you consider the
besta"
"The English we prefer. The French are
good, but the American are rough and
heavy. We never keep the American hair
pin. This year we are bringing charming
fancy pins for the adornment of the hair
Moonstones are very popular and SO are those
of fligree work of gold, delicate cobweb,
and floral pins of exquisite beauty and but
terfies, in the pale gold and alloys of the
gayest tints. The delicate old-fashioned tor
toise shell pins, such as our grandmothers
wore in high back combs, are very fashiona,
BILE for the back hair. They are exquisitely
thin, but very frail, and are as difficult to
mend if broken as eggshell china"
Making tour of the Woodward avenue
stores, it was found that the sales of hair
pins approximated very closely at each, aver
aging several hundred gross every three or six
months.
GAS the woman's mechanical tool" said
a male haberdasher, married, by the way,
''the hairpin is unrivalled. It is to woman
what a jackknife is to a boy, and it is the
only sharp-pointed instrument that she can
manage with skill. With a hammer she
jabs her hands; but hairpin she can twist
and turn into all kinds of feminine family
uses. With hairpin a woman buttons her
gloves and occasionally her boots, tears open
her letters. cuts the pages of her latest fash
ion book or magazine, draws out corks, picks
out nuts, pins up rip, fastens in her flowers,
makes up floral designs, pins down her gar
den vines, fastens up the curtains, unknots
a shoestring, mends her jewelry, suspends
plaques, sticks up receipts cut with it from a
newspaper, snuffs candles, scoops out her
vaseline, and cleans-well, uses it for any
quantity of toilet purposes. If there is any
one article more necessary to the comfort of
women for family use than the magic hairpin,
it isn't down in the directory.
"There is luck, too, in hairpins. To find
a hairpin is good omen, especially If the
points are turned toward you. That simple
position doubles the luck. To pass one with
out picking it up turns ones luck. DO you
know that Just now there is fancy among
men for collecting hairpins, and it is said
that several young society gentlemen have an
assortment, picked up in different ways,
and which represent to them great deal of
female loveliness.