St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1886-01-17
TALES OF WOMEN'S HAIR.
An Enraged Duchess Cuts or Her
Hair for spite.
Curious Uses for Human HaIr--Hung
by a Hair.

OTnamented the head OF the authors adOred
Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, for it was a
notorious tact that the learned lady enter
tanned profound prejudice against brush
and comb, and was wont 70 conceal her
tangled tresses meath hideOus cap. Dry
den said of the one hundred and nifty thou
Sandth part OF wOman's capillary attrac-
tons:
She knows.her man. and when you rant and
Can draw you to her with single hair.
Carew added his testimony in the lines:
These curious locks, so aptly entertwined,
Whose every hair soul doth bind.
That solitary hair might prove as fatal
TO a mans neck as TO his soul was shown in
the execution of the California murderer,
Waslelewsky, q few years ago. Judge Bel
den, grim satlrist. sentenced the
criminal and then suggested that JUS
tice should be made peculiarly retTi-
buIive By an original method OF
hanging. in which a long. black hair from
the head OF the woman so brutallY muir
dered. and which had figured in the teSti-
mOny, should be the final means when cut
of letting the weight drop and sending the
murderer into eternity.
A single hair in the hands OF a detective
or on the shoulder OF a mans coat has
been well utilized in the tragedy and
comedy of real and mimic life-as instanced
in France this very month, when Que white
hair from the head of his victim was the
convincing testimony that sent the
murderer Delacourt 10 his doom: and
a little comedy by Octave Feuillet called
For One Fair HAIR" has been revived
with success, the thread OF the story being
literally in this case single golden hair.
Do you remember that master touch OF
ha nd Lunffna caIl a.. -eY,Ia
did locks that her child might have bread?
have known similar instances in real life
and among the hundred tons Of human hair
that are bought and sold each year in
European marts, how many bundles of
silky hair lying among the eoaTser grades
from peasants heads breathe of silent
sacrifice? For just as much as the hand
and ear does the hair betray good blood and
fine breeding.
That luxurious mass Of long. blue-black
perfumed hair-"How came il here?" /
asked the swarthy foreman, burnt under
the Southern sun.
1t was cut Oft the head of a young wife,
madam, whose husband left her here ill
abandoned. She wished it to be
sold to pay for her coffin, and
she knew that dealers do not
like to buy dead hair any more than they
do feathers plucked from a dead goose" he
concluded, in a most matter-Of-fact way.
Most pathetic of ali was package of soft,
lustrOus, silvery-white hair-a mothers
sacrifice. no doubt-and which, oh, grim
Fatel ill bring a higher price than even
the heavy flaXen braids at their side.
For the rest, for those pounds upon
pounds of brown and yellow and black
treSSeS, one can look at them without emo
ton, for, like the sleeps wool, they were
grown only to be shom and for the sake of
a few silver coins and gorgeous 'kerchief
that tempers the wind TO the peasant lambs
of Auvergne and Brittany.
Two women. both celebrated in their
way, deliberately cut off their hair. Char
lOtte Corday was one. She had no trinkets
nor mementOes TO distribute among her
friends, so she forstalled the grim valet of
the guillOtine and cut of her beautiful hair
herself, sending locks of it to her family
and dearest friends.
or that proud. arrogant and ambitious
woman. Sarah, duchess of Marlborough,
we might say she cut OFF her hair instead of
nose TO spite her face. The duchess had
very splendid hair, unusual in length and
abundance, and exceedingly fine. The
great soldier her husband, who was very
much in love with her, entertained for
it prOfund admiration, and was wont to
say he loved every hair on her
head. Indeed. it was his delight to unbind
her tresSes himself and let them fall i'm a
luxurious cloud about her stately person.
Nevertheless the noble couple INDUCED at
various times in very ignOble dOmes-
tic battles. in which the warrior was
apt to get worsted, but on one occasion
he did come out victorious, which so cha
grined and enraged the Duchess that she
determined to do what she thought would
outrage her husbands feelings the most-so
going to her tiring-room she took a sharp
knife and slashed her superb hair off.
Then there was the countess of Suffolk,
who welded poverty and Mr.. Howard.
One must admire her for her pluck as well
as her beauty. When it became necessary
quet, though their money-chest was
empty, the countess did not hesitate to sell
her exQuisitely fine and fair hair, of which
she had an abundance. Twenty pounds
(S1OO) was the sum she received for it, and
that doubtless, provided a royal feast in
those days of cheapness and plenty.
Women in prison, even under life SEN
tenee, never give up all attempts TO embel-
lish themselves. and, am told by the Off
Gals, find enjoyment not only in giving
their hair extra attention, but even in
scraping the whitewash OF the walls with
their finger nails to use as powder, and sub
stitute red ink for rouge.
At South Kensington is exhibited an ex-
traOrdinary coil of rope, weighing 600
pounds and 500 feet long, made in Japan by
order of Tycoon whose name l cannot un-
dertake to spell from memory. During six
years all the ''spare hair" OF one entire pro-
vince was used in its manufacture, but at the
- L..
travelling through the country was so struck
with 1t as a curiosity that he offered to send
in exchange for 1t the finest steel cable that
could be made in England. His japanese
majesty accepted the offer. and the hairy
hawser was afterward presented to the
great Kensington collection.
In concluding this article / must mention
the most superb head of hair ever seen in
this country-that OF the Marouise Coneep-
ton Montalvo de Quene OF CUBA very
beautiful woman. who has made occasional
visits TO New York. OF exquisitely-mod-
eled figure and tall, her apparent
height Is added to by massive plaits
of hair wound tightly about her
finely-shaped head in the form of a coronet
and fastened with small diamond dagger
When these plaits are unwound they fail in
a shimmering cascade of FURNISHED brown
to the floor. eighty inches in length-over
two yards-and fine as spool silk.
Ones pen rather fingers on the pic
ture of the marquise, for her hair
was only one Of her personal charms.
Her skin was as soft and pure as
garden rose; her large dark eyes had the
peculiar FRESHNESS and open look of ehild's;
her mouth was lovely enough to drop moth
ing but pearls and rubies. which l am sure
il did in the shape of pretty speeches. and
her manners behtted Princess Charming.