Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1889-01-30
STRANGER THAN FICTION
A Reporter Discovers a Romance
in Real Life.
A Starving Woman Sells Her Locks and So
Regains Her Husbaad-Lonefng Hearts
Reunited After Terrible Struggles
A Hair Dealer's Story.
Philadelphia Times.I

IPn1laQeIpnia TimeS.l
81 had strange experience once In
human hair" said a member of a firm
Of human.hair importers to a reporter for
the Times. "a French lady Of noble
blood, who has been my friend for years,
wrote me q few months ago, inclosing q
lock of hair, which was peculiar shade
of drab and of silky fineness. She wanted
me to match 1t, and set about doing so.
dispatched my agents all over Europe.
hair that would match the sample.
II then inserted an advertisement In
the principal Philadelphia, New York and
Boston papers, Offering a liberal reward
for a switch of the desired quality and
color. One day a woman Of about twenty
years of age, STABILITY dressed, but with a
form and face that Venus might have en-.
We'd, entered my Office.
"1 came in answer to your advertise
ment,' she said, and, removing her hat,
unbound luxuriant coil Of hair th at
called from me an involuntary cry Of adj
miration win this dov she asked.
81 examined her hair aud compared it
with the sample sent me by the Countess.
The two were so similar that when I
mixed them together could not distin-
guish one from the other.
"'This hair is exactly what l want I
said, and I will give you two hundred
dollars an ounce for tt
stake it off, she said, with nervous
trembling Of her voice that at once at
tracted my attention. I am starving, l
and my baby, and what you are willing
to pay is fortune to u.s.
81 became interested, and questioned
her. After little hesitation she told me
her story. Her husband had been sea
captain, and shortly after they were mar
ried had sailed for the west coast of Afri-
ca. His vessel was never heard Of after
leaving port, and it was presumed that
she had foundered at sea and all hands
had been lost. The presumed widow had
struggled to maintain herself and infant
child, but with Indifferent success. Final
ly, when suffering from the pangs of hum
gor, she had read my advertisement, and
FASTENED to my place OF business, praying
inwardly that her hair, which had been
her husbands pride, might be of the re-
qured shade.
'WeI, to make long story short, I
bought her hair, which weighed four
ounces, and paid her $500 for it. l sent
the switch to my customer, the Countess,
and wrote her the history of the hair.
She is woman of great wealth and
goodness of heart. The return mail
brought me letter authorizing me to pay
the poor little sailors widow 81, 900 extra.
did SO, and wrote an account of the
affair to our official journal, which is pub.
hshed in New York. The story was SO
romantic that the daily papers copied it,
aud received several letters from char
liable people offering pecuniary assist
ancs to the sailors widow. She was
proud and refused to receive any help.
"One day, about three weeks after the
publication OF the story, man who was
bron zed and bearded, came into my Office
very much excited. He held in his hand
a copy of New York paper, and unfold
ing it pointed to my story.
Scan you give me the address of this
woman?' he asked eagerly. She is my
wife; thought her dead.'
''While I wrote down the address ne
told me his story. His vessel had been
shipwrecked on the African coast, and
he and two others of the crew alone man
aged to reach the shore. 1t was several
months before they managed to reach a
civilized port He Immediately sent word
of the disaster to the owners of the foun-
dered vessel and VT ote to his young wife.
From the former he received a reply, but
he heard no word from his wife, and
when he reached Philadelphia he discov.
cred that she had mysteriously disap-
peared. One day in looking over a'paper
he came across my story, and had hur-
ried to my office to learn fuller particu.
lars. sent him to his wife in my car
riage, and you can imagine what occurred
at the meeting, for each believed the 9th
er dead / wrote to the Countess, giving
the sequel to the story, and the result was
that the shipwrecked Captain now COM
mands her yacht, and the wife who sac
rifced her hair to buy bread sails with
him on every voyage"