Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1886-10-09
A CHAPTER ON BALD HEADS.

Virgil G.. Eaton, an accomplished news
paper reporter, and a close observer, IN the
Popular Science Monthly, reasoning by syn.
thetic processes, predicts that the man O
| the future will be bald. This conclusion Is
reached by way of observations of the
rather recent past of mans habit. It is
demonstrated that about so per cent. Of
the men of to-day, over 80 years of age.
| show signs of badness, while fully 20 per
cent. are actually bald but it is of course
known to every one that far fewer women
are bald than men.
The statistics of badness displayed in
churches and theaters are really startling
To some there might be consolation in the
disclosure that a greater proportion o.
| bald-headed men were found in audiences
at the performance Of The Mikado," and
at the plays where Judic appeared, than
in the congregations at Trinity Church OF
Kings Chapel, Boston. But the hope o.
these that the percentage has been meas
ured upon the basis of phenomenal group
ings, is dashed by the recital that the bald
headed element is considerably larger in
audiences of refinement. Thus, when Patti
sang in Boston, she had an audience 46 per
cent bald-headed, and q like percentage
was found at one of Matthew Arnold't
lectures. Eaton is convinced, after several
hundred observations extending over sew
eral years, that the more intellectual the
gathering, the greater the proportion o.
bald heads. When he attended q slogging
match given by John L. Sullivan he
found the percentage of badness fell to
u. We may infer from this that brainy
men are more liable to badness, and thus
reach the conclusion that at least a bald
head is priu'a faeie a crown of distinction.
| There is therefore consolation in the stated
fact that there are more ~bald-headed men
in Boston than there are Of those who
have black or red hair.
If like begets like among mankind, Ii
being true that badness has abnormally
increased of late years, it is legitimate con-
clusion that there is to come on the stage
Of action in future men without hairy
heads, doomed to 60 through life bald. OF
| course there is some compensation in the
reflection that if this is to be, Nature
adapts development to conditions, and
hence the scalp of the future may be fore
cast as a much tougher and very much
less sensitive article Of the personal econ
omy than at present, with a proportional
decadence of " colds in the head" and Ca
tarrhal affections, and therefore something
less of human misery. Mr.. Eaton does not
suggest these compensations and benefits
as resultant of the fulfllment of his proph-
ecy, and if there is error in our method of
reasoning to these ends it is due to a sim
cere desire to comfort the coming bald
headed man.
But by all odds the more interesting
portion of Mr.. Eatcn's careful paper is
that devoted to the reason and the remedy
for the foreshadowed depilous condition of
the future man. The cause assigned is
that with which we are all familiar-the
wearing of tightly-ftting head-coverings-
and it is because this reproach does not
attach to women that 50 few Of them are
prematurely bald. Another cause is, how
ever, assigned by Mr.. Eaton that runs
athwart a popular belief. He maintains
that cropping the hair, instead of giving
it strength and stimulating its growth, in
duces badness. Women, as a rule, dc not
cut their hair short, and for this reason
also they are less visited with badness
The sayages go bareheaded, and badness
is unknown among them.
The artificial protection of the head by
hats and caps dissuades nature from the
performance of its duty to furnish hair for
scalp protection from the assaults of the
elements. To restore hairy-headedness to
the race, therefore, there must be such ex-
posure of the head as viii stimulate nature
to interpose natural protection. That is
to say, men must care less for the hair, if
they desire hair to care for. To have
scalp locks, then, the coming man must
expose the head to open air, eschew close
fitting head-gear, never wear caps or hats
indoors, and go bareheaded more and
more.
! The observation of any man will con-
vince him of the entire soundness OF these
propositions. 1t must have been impressed
upon every intelligence that the Grown
of glory" is most frequent with
those heads that know least of
that abomination and instrument of
' torture, the silk hat or @stoye-pipe;" is most