, 1889-05-22
HAIR DYE AND WAGE FARMERS.
Mature Worldngmen Driven to Use It In
Enormous Quantities

Mature WorLdngmen Driven to Use It In
Enormous Quantities
There Is now going on a mighty struggle
which Is almost essentially u question of age.
Yet 1t Is one which affects thousands and
thousands of men and women, who are toilers
and bread winnerS
On all sides preference Is given by employ
ers to youth over more advanced years.
Absalom, in the vigor Of his juvenility, is
content to receive 20 to 80 per cent. less
money than his more mature rival. In
wholesale warehouses, In public companies,
In retail establishments, In the street, on the
road and the rail, men and women who arc
still hale and hearty in mind and body have
been set adrift to make room for the younger
and cheaper-generation. They are willing
to work for the same wages, but the masters
viii have none of them
In their distress they turn to a comforter
not to the workhouse, II they can avoid so
doing; not 10 the charitable institutions, not
to the trades unions, but to the Figaro him.
self, the perruquier, tho hairdresser, the bar
Der. The amount of hair dye used by artisans
and laborers VI 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 it Is well worth dyeing.
Tho testimony on the subject Is ~undeniable.
A knight of the razor In the north of London
t~estiies that he is doing a tremendous trade
in hair dye with workingmen for the reasons
given above. "They take 1t home,p he said,
''and get their wives to lay it on. In many
cases it is an absolute necessity with female
employees. Proprietors of big millinery estab-
lishments won't nave women with gray hair
on the promises
you've no idea what misery I've been
aware of in families from gray hair. / knew
a man, a father of six children All of a sud-
den, from illness, l think, his hair whitened,
and his employer took tho earliest opportu-
nifty of giving him the sack and getting n
younger man In his place. He couldn't obtain
another situation anywhere, and the more
trouble he had tho older he looked At last,
when he was at his wits end, some one told
him to get his hair dyed, and, what's more,
lent 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 rs
true as I'm not q Dutchman it's been the sal
walton of many hard working men and wom-
en-" A lady dealing in human hair near st.
Pancrns, when sounded on the subject, adj
mitted the practice, and allowed that she
dealt very largely in dye, nearly oil vcnded
TO those earning their living In large COM
mercial establishments.
The same tale was repeated by one who did
n good deal of traffic in his way with ladies
of the theatrical persuasion. "Lor' bless
you, " he exclaimed, without hair dye some
of those women would be nowhere. What
would you say, If you was a manager, If q
girl with gray locks came to you and wanted
an engagement 1expect you'd show her the
door pretty quickly. I'm not talking of those
vain young females who turn black to gold
or red to brown. l mean the chorister of So
to 40. still good looking, but who is beginning
To show tba nnvv1ar pufF nm bpr haad Thara
Isn't one, there isn't twenty, there isn't a
hundred, but I'd bet there's q thousand or
moro in the United Kingdom. Their great
grandmothers had to wear wigs; their de-
scendants arc n deal moro comfortable with
a little harmless coloring matter on their own
hair" And so the story runs nd inflnitum.
London Telegraph.