The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1886-11-13
IONS OE HAIR-PINS.
The One Instrument Which Women can
Use with Defines and Assurance.

The One Instrument Whlcn NoHoi Jan
Use with Defines and Assurance.
'.How many hair-pins does lady
wear in year," repeated clerk on
Woodward avenue with a smile. "Well,
that just depends on how many she
loses. Many ladies SOW their hair-pins
as they go, while others are so careful
that they use only one box year.
Then, too, it just depends on how many
daughters one has. We sell hundreds
of pounds year--that is of the plain
kinds. We've seen the time when we
could pretty nearly pay our rent out OF
our hair-pin trade, but since these fancy
hair-pins 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."
1--WE buy our hair-pins," said an
other dealer, ''by the hundred-weight.
and sell gross day, that is of English
STEEL
Glow many doyou sell at timer
80, we have any number of GUS
toners who buy pound at Il time. II
lady has a family of daughters pound
lasts only a short time. "
"What becomes of them?''
"Well, you'll have to ask some one
else. That's conundrum yet to be
solved. They slip out of sight most
certainly and in the most unaccounta-
BILE way"
lis there no way of making them so
they will be secure?"
"a good many ways have been tried.
Some think the crimped pin the most
secure. The silk pin. u French inven-
ton, which is covered with silk the eX-
act shade of the hair, stays in place
better than the steel pin. There is Il
wonderful variety of hair-pins. The
gilt, silver. shell, lnvisible-all these
come in different sizes, and are light,
smooth and comfortable. Then there
are rabber 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 pins.
"What hair-pin do you consider the
best?"
The English we prefer. The French
are good, but the American are rough
and heavy. We never keep the Amer
lean hair pin. This year we are bring
ing charming fancy pins for the adorn-
ment of the hair. Moonstones are very
popular and so are those of tiligree
work of gold delicate as cobweb. and
floral pins of exquisite beauty and but
terhies, in the pale gold and alloys of
the gayest tints. The delicate old
fashioned tortoise-shell pins, such as
our grandmothcrs wore in high-back
combs, are very fashionable for the
back hair. They are cxquisitely thin,
but very frail, and are as difficult to
mend, if broken, as egg-shell china. "
Making Il tour of the largest Wood
ward avenue stores, it was found that
the sales OF hair pins approXimated
very closely at each, averaging sew
eral hundred gross every three or six
months.
LAS the woman's mechanical tool, )"
said male haberdasher, married, by
the way, ''thc hair-pin is unrivaled. 1t
is to woman what Il jack-knife is to a
boy. and it is the only shart pointed in
strument that she can manage with
skill. With hammer she pounds her
fingers: with n screw-driver she iabs
her hands, but hair-pin she can twist
and turn in all kinds Of feminine fami-
ly uses. With Il hair. pin Il woman but
tons her gloves and occasionally her
boots, tears open her letters. cut the
pages of her latest fashion-book or
magazine, draws out corlls, picks out
nuts, pins up a rip. fastenS in the flow
ers, makes up floral designs, pins
down her garden-vines, fastens up the
curtains, unknOts a shoe-string, mends
her jewelry, suspends plaques, sticks
uV receipts cut with it from news
paper, snulls 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 hair-pin it isn't down
in the directory.
"Thero is luck, too, in har-pins.
To find hair-pin is a COOL omen, es-
pecially the points are turncd towards
you. That simple position doubles the
luck. TO pass one by without picking
it up turns ones luck. Do you know
that Just now there is fancy among
young men for collecting hair-pns,
and it is said that several young society
Gentlemen have an assortment, picked
up in different ways, and which repre-
sent to them great deal Of feminine
loveliness?"- Detroit Tribune.