The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1889-08-30
HAiR-DYE FOR woRKMEN.
Driven to Use II In Order to Keep Up iI
tho Race with the Young.


the Race with the Young.
There is now going on a mighty
struggle which is almost essentially
question of age Yet it is one which
affects thousands and thousands of
men and women who are toilers and
bread-winners.
On all sides preference is given by
employers to youth over more ad-
vanced years Absalom, in the vigor
of his juvenility. is content TO receive
twenty TO thirty per cent. less money
than his more mature rival. In whole
sale warehouses, in public companies,
IN retail establishments. in the street,
on the road and the rail, men and
women who are still hale and hearty
in mind and body have been set adrift
to make room for the younger-and
cheaper-generatio They are will
ing to work for the same wage, but
the masters viii have none of them.
In their distress they turn TO a
comforter-not to the wOrk-house, If
they can avoid so doing; not to the
charitable institutions, not the trades
union, but to Figaro himself, the per-
ruquier, the hairdresser. the barber
sans and laborers of all sorts is not
only enormous, but increases day by
day. 1t is not vanity which impels
them to the practice, it is life, for
which 1t is well worth dyeing.
The testimony on the subject is un-
deniable. A knight of the razor in
the north of London testifies that he
is doing n tremendous trade in hair
dye with working men for the reasons
given above. They take it home"
he said, land get their wives to lay it
on. In many cases it is an absolute
necessity with female employees Pro
prietors ofbig millinery establishments
wont have women with gray hair on
the premises.
You've no idea what misery I've
been aware of in families from gray
hair. / knew a man, father of six
children. All of sudden, from i'll
ness, l think, his hair whitened. and
his employer took the earliest oppor-
tunity OF giving him the sack, and
getting "a younger man in his place
He couldn't obtain another situation
anywhere, and the more trouble he
had the older he looked. At last, when
he was at his witt end, some one told
him to get his hair dyed. and, what's
more, lcnt him the money to have it
done. Well, he's got another place.
It's less money; but you'd hardly
know him again. I've seen scores
like him Your young folk may sneer
at dye and crack jokes on the subject,
but as true as I'm not a Dutchman it's
been the salvation OF many hard d-work-
ing Iacn and women" A lady dealing
in human hair near st. Pancras, whom
sounded on the subject, admitted the
practice, and allowed that she dealt
very largely in dye. nearly all vended
to those earning their living in large
commercial establishments.
The same tale was repeated by
one who did good deal OF
traffic in this way with ladies of
the theatrical persuasion. '.Lor'
bless you he exclaimed. with
out hair-dye some of those women
would be nowhere. What would you
say. if you was a manager, if girl
with gray locks came to you and
wanted an engagement? 1 expect
you'd show her the door pretty quick
ly. I'm not talking of those vain
young females who turn black to gold
or rcd to brown. mean the choristcr
of thirty-five to forty, still good look
ing, but who is beginning to show the
powder puff on her head. There isn't
one, there isn't twenty. there isn't a
hundred, but I'd like to bet there's a
thousand or more in the United King
dom. Their great-grandmothers had
TO wear wigs; their descendants are a
deal more comfortable with a little
harmless coloring matter on their
own hair" And so the story runs ad
infinitum- Telegraph.