The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1891-06-07
AM A HAIR coLoRIsr.
Hundreds OF Fashionable Women by
the Scalp Every Year.

I color hair for a living.
In the last year have had COZ women by
the scalp.
l earn about $50 a weak cleaning, color
ing and drying wigs, but my salary is only
sl4 week. Occasionally get quarter
OF a dollar. a shell comb or a well-worn hair
ornament from a customer. and the firm
allows me to keep all the handkerchiefs.
wells, fans and umbrellas that are left in the
toilet room.
Women are not generous as a class, nor
just as a rule. They regard me as a sort of
war horse and accept as their due all the
vitality and muscular effort | can bestow
1t takes a great deal Of physical force to
give head of hair a chemical bath, lather
it properly and dry it in q couple of hours
work from in the morning until in the
evening, and when Iget home, assure you,
am as lame in my arms and back and as
completely used up as a washwoman.
But there is no monotony in the business.
Every customer is study, and, my stars
how thew will talkl declare they ought to
be muzzled for the protection of their fam
lilies and the reputation of their husbands.
The histories of New York people which
get every month from these lazy, idle, rich,
reckless women would make book of hor-
rors that, if published, would give society
fever and ague, chills and spasms.
Some of the information, non -scandalous,
is often amusing. For instance, the wife of
a Tammany man told me that Mayor
Grant had sixteen tooth brushes in his
toilet room. She went through his house
during a recent absence and found many
things TO admire.
Another lady, a pupil of Mr.. Edmond
Russell, contded to me that she was Del
sarte student and had been trying to teach
Bishop Potter how to pronounce the beue-
dictlon, la Delsarte, ne was so very grace
less in the use of his dimity-draped arms
and hands. She said that the distinguished
bishop was very good natured aboutit. and
was Improving very much IN the uplifting
of his episcopal palms.
The only money | ever received that did
not earn was $50 gold piece given me by a
very woman who was crazy to see Nine.
Patti in dishabille. l had three consecutive
appoir ments to wash the roots of her hair
with peroxide of hydrogen, but knew that
she would not permit me to take stranger
into her dressing room. Still the woman
was diving TO go, and raised the $40 to $50,
paying me in advance. Well, l wanted the
money, | knew the smuggling would not do
any harm TO Patti or the firm, and deter
mined to find way to secure it. The sec
ond day made Patti believe that her hair
was splitting, and ought to be burnt off at
the ends. and that would agree to do it for
her in a short time.
mo, no, mol" she exclaimed, adding em-
phasis with her foot. Then, as l did not
urge. she asked how long it would take
told her would bring my assistant,
and we would SINCE her whole head in half
an hour. To my astonishment she agreed
and the next day in l walked, with my 500
unknown customer, to her toilet-room. She
held the spirit lamp and picked up the
tresses of carrot-red hair as fast as | was
ready for them, and her curiosity was sat
isfied. AS you may imagine, she was disil-
lusionized.
Patti looked ike an ordinary woman.
She was dressed in a red silk pettcoat,
black stockings, old slippers, very much run
down in the heels, and a dressiug-sack of
blue and white flannel. She had an engage
ment with face massage woman, and her
neck, forehead, nose and lips were smeared
with cold cream.
During the operation she whiled away
the time loosening the cuticle about her
finger nails with little shell file. Patti
was not pretty that morning In the eyes of
my guest. She looked more like Group
patient than anything could think of. but
she was a source of gain to me, and |
thought her seraphic.
l never saw the stranger my guest, after
chat, but always had an idea that she was
public singer or actress.
Patti is the most wonderfully preserved
WOA4AAh AL buS WOAtO, L Deltdf0, lOT LIST age
She is certainly the best kept woman Ihave
ever waited upon, and my list includes
about 1900 l know all the Vanderbilt
daughters and daughters-in-law. and there
isn't one who can compare with the singer
in youth, good keeping Of good looks. Some
of them are swarthy, some are languid; one
is very morose, and during her fits of mel
ancholy she gets bilious and yellow spotted.
All have their maids and house servants,
but not one shows the good grooming that
is natural to Mime. Patti.
What are more marvellous to me are her
eyes-they are absolutely young, like girls
/ tell you never have seen anything like the
fire and brilliancy that shines in them. Now
a woman may don a wig Of young hair and
she may paint the lines out of her face and
cover the rouge with bonnet or head dress,
but there is nothing in chemistry that will
give her dim eyes the brightness and
splendid luster of youth. But Patti has it,
don't know how or from what source, but
it is there.
She told me that the secret of her good
looks was the result of the training begun
by her brother-in~law.
When she began her career he made it his
business to keep care away. "If care will
kill a cat. which has nine lives, it will GER
tafnly kill prina donna or her future, in
twenty years." And so he gave er her own
way, kept everything disagreeable or
troublesome from her notice, and induced
her not to read the papers. That system
Nicolini has continued to the letter. He
opens all her mail, destroys every letter
that is not an invitation or a compliment.
The newspapers are carefully reviewed and
every murder, accident calamity and sui
eide cut out, or destroyed entirely. She
never sees beggar, an invalid or corpse,
case OF suffering or misery, an irate trades
man or respondent singer or actor. She
knows there is dark side to life, but re-
CARDS 1t in the same category as the con-
tagious disehses-to be quarantined.
1.-The strain on the emotions can do no
good to the cause and only ages the victim"
is her way Of putting Git. Another saying
OF her is this: Most people make money
Co save; l intend that money shall save
me-" And it certainly has saved her the
freshness and beauty of youth.
1t is no secret that Patti is very vain
woman, and justly so, she could not abide
gray hair, and the very momeut she real
lied that her raven tresses were turning
white she had them colored copper or car
rot red. | wonder she did not have her
eyebrows colored too, but she refused to
have them touched. She has a very fine
head of hair, thick and abundant, but the
new shade is nothing as becoming as the
original.
A complete change has come over the
hair business in the last twelve years. For
merly gray hair was dyed and dark hair