Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1888-12-19
wOsaAN's MIGHTY IMPLEMENT.
The Marvellous Things the Dear Crea-
lures Can Do with . Hairpin.

The Marvellous Things the Dear Cres-
lures Can DO with Hairpin.
From the Philadelphia Press.
''What want when am cast away on des-
ert island" said Andramache, as she took .
hairpin out of her head, and bending il into
hook fished her ring out Of the drsin-pipe with
it, 'is a whole package Of hairpins! II ever
woman writes a Robinson Crusoe story she
will have heroine instead of hero, and she
will give her hairpins to build her little cot
tage with and to make wire mattresses and
bustles and broilers and what not with. and
she will execute feats of ingenuity that will
leave the Schonberg Gotta family out Of sight
OF course, in the order Of nature" Andrama-
che went on, Strengthening out the small but
adaptable implement in her hand and
returning it to her French twist, .'of
course she ought to have the back of hair
brush to drive and bend her pins with, but if
that would be making her too much at home
on the desert island, dare say she could learn
to make a stone do You think I'm exaggerat-
ing the virtues Of the little busy hairpin, don't
you? That's your ignorance. II you'd wear
'em awhile you'd learn to button your boots
and gloves with them, and pin back your cur
tains with them, and make hooks Of them to
hang your bric-a-brac on. and use them to
clean your nails with. and to mend your UNI
brella. and to file your papers on, and to pick
nuts with, all just as matter Of course. No,
didn't say take them out Of your hair to pick
nuts with, You hateful, mean thing Ofcourse,
you go and get new ones, virgin hairpins, out
OF the packages for that, and they are the best
nut-pickers going, too. But these are not half
what you can do with them. 1t is at boarding
school we first find out their true value. That
is one of the best results of the modern system
OF education as far as is seen.
"You see that curious little spoon made out
OF shell up there in that little cabinet? You
thought 1t was some sort of a South Sea island
curiosity, or came from Madagascar or the
Pueblo Indians, or something like that, didn't
you? Well, it isn't. 1t was produced by lust
the unassisted genius and labor of an everyday
American boarding school girl. She wanted To
give secret midnight spread in her rooms
and she couldn't get hold of spoons to eat her
jam with, so she just turned to and fitted LOT
OF little shells with hairpin handles and then
wound them-the handles-witb ribbon. and
they were not only pretty, but useful-a great
improvement on eating jam with nail brush
handles, as we did before that.
THAT girl was the belle of the school until
another girl picked the pantry lock with a
hairpin, and we gave the teachers the biggest
kind of burglar scare. What they were mos,
afraid of was that the girl who picked the lock
would leave the school because she was too
frightened to stay where such things hap.
pened. The last feat saw one of my sex per.
form with hairpin was a high heroic deed
My sister-in-law last week found that her
three-year-old son and heir had climbed out O,
the third-story window and was pranc.
ing around on the edge of the back roof
her heart was in her mouth; she did no,
dare to call him or go to him, for feaI
that would startle him and make him tumble
he was squatting by the tin gutter, carefully
examining its contents. What did she do,
Why, she had hairpins. didn't she? She wasn'i
hopeless, helpless researches man. with sew.
enteen pockets and not pin of any kind on his
whole person. She just chose the biggest
sharpest-pointed hairpin she had, bent it into
hook. wired it into a broom-handIe with the
help of another, and in less time than you car
think hooked that young man by the belt from
behind and hauled him in. You don't half be.
lieve 1t? Why, what else would she have done
pray, Master Impertinence? You come with
me, and I'll prove it to you BY showing YOU
both the boy and the BROOM