The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1889-07-03
from an the Year Round.

both ancient and widespread. roi
centuries the popular mind through
out Europe has associated hair OF TINS
unlueky color with untrustworthi-
ness and deceit. An old Latin Col
lection of Proverbs, by Henry Bebei,
published in Germany in 1912, has the
tollowing:-
"Raro breves humiles vidi ruffosque
ideles." proud are the short and
Enthusiastically the red haired.)
The Italians have a milder saying:-
'Capelli rossi, O tuto foco o tutto
mosci." (Red hair, either all fire or
all softness.)
There is an old French rhyme dat
ing from the seventeenth century,
which says
Homme roux ct femme barbue
De treute pas loin lie salle.
Avecques trois pierras au poing
Pour ten alder a ton besoign.
Salute a red-haired man or bearded
at thirty feet off with three
stones in thy fist to defend thee in thy
need).
The same sentiment of dislike and
distrust is found continually cropping
up in our own Older literature.
1t did not pass altogether without
rebuke. Writers on vulgar errors oc-
casionally denounced the prejudice,
and a Gaseon writer and soldier of the
seventeenth century, Cyrano de Ber-
gerac, the author of various humorous
and satirieai pieces, boldly praised
and glorified the despised color. His
work on the Estates and Empires OF
the Sun was translated into English,
and in it he Gays that
"A brave head covered with red
hair is nothing else but the sun in the
midst of his rays, yet many speak Ill
of it. because few have the honor to
do SOL
And again, that flaxen hair betokens
~fickleness, and black obstinacy; but
between both. he says, is the medium.
~Where wisdom ia favor OF red
haired men hath lodged virtue, SO
their flesh is much more delicate, their
blood more pure, their spirits more
clarified, and consequently their intel
1ect more accomplished, because OF the
mixture of the four qualities"
At the present day in the north 1T is
considered unfucky for a red-haired
man TO be the first to enter a new
house. There is also a notion that it
such a man be the first to enter q
house on New Years morning Ill luck
will surely follow, and will probably
| result in a death in the house before
the end of the year. The popular
| prejudice seems to have originated in
| the tradition that Judas Iscariot was
red-beaded. There is a further belief
that the rebellious Absalom1s luXuri-
| GUS locks were of the obnoxious color;
but it is hardly necessary to go be-
yond Judas for the origin of the feel
ing. Most of the old painters repre-
sent the t~raitorous apostle with hair
of the traditional color. There is one
notable exception, however, for in
Leonardo da Vinci's Last Supper
Judas has black hair.
The adjective, 'Judas-haired,' - and
similar abusive phrases, frequently oc-
cur in old writers. Ia "As You Like
Itp Rosaaind says OF Oraando:-'His
very hair is of the assembling color"
to which Celia replies: something
browner than Judas's.n A character in
Marston's ''Insatiate Countess" says
II ever thought by his rec beard he
would prove a Judas; here am /
bought and sold"
Dryden frequently ouarrelled with
his publisher, Jacob Tonson, a man
of very unprepossessing appearance,
| about payments, and on one occasion
the poet sent him the following libel
lous lines
With ieering looks, builfaeed, and freckled fair,
With two left legs, and Judas-colofed hair,
And frowsy pores that faint the ambient air.
With this pleasing beginning Dry
den sent the message-"Tell the dog
that he who wrote those lines can
write more"
A modern allilsion to the tradition
is found in Matthew Arnold's poem,
"St. Brandon;"-
That furtiNe mien, that s~cowling eye,
OF hair that red and tufted. fell;
1t is-oh, where shall brandon fly?
The traitor Judas ont of hell.
Although the traditional reason for
the obnoxiousness of the color has
probably died out of popular recollec-
ton, red hair still remains the subject
| of Vulgar repfoach and sarcasm. The
Haunting cry OF ginger" OF carrots
is familiar to the ear attuned to catch
the echoes of the street. In America
mahogany top" is a similar term Cd
reproach. Carrots" and ''caIToty'
are found frequently in literature from
the middle of the seventeenth century
or our own time. Ia the Book OF
| Snobs, " the terrible old Lady Clapper
claw pours contempt upon the daugh-
ter of her rival, poor Blanche Mug
gins, with her 1'radish of a nose and
her carrots OF ringlets." In Ireland
foxy is a more common term. Dunat
O'Leary, the hair cutter liza Gerald
Grifin's once famous novel, 1.-The
| Collegians,n upon which the popular
Colleen Bawn" is founded, was
known as Foxy Dunat in a1lusion tc
his red poll. Sydney Smith made
amusing use of the popular prejudice
in his ~Petter Plylnley's Letters"
Notwithstanding the odium that
mgy naturally be supposed to have
attached to red hair ia times past
on account of its association with
Judas, yet the same color of beard
seems sometimes to have been re-
garded with more kindly eyes. lit was
the mode in Elizabethan times to
color the beard, and red would APP
pear to have been a fashionable tint,
for in the first act OF Lodowick BaaTy's
comedy OF Ram Alley" there is this
dialogue;-
Tatfeta-Mhatcolored beard comes nextby th'
Window
Anariana-A black manls, I think.
TaffetaI think not sos i think a red, fer That
is most in fashion.