The Portland daily press., 1891-01-08
THEY DISCARD WIGS.
Jewish Girls allow their Hair to
Grow In this Land.
New York SUM-.

lNeW fOrk Sun.J
From one of the old fashioned houses
In East Broadway hangs thus sign;
Ladies' Barber Shop. Ladies Halr Gut
and Dressed" The visions Oh ualntliy
perfumed rooms and pretty women at
pendants thatmay be aroused by this are
NOT borra ont by clever inspection. In
fac+ those combinations don't flourish
in that locality. But nevertheless the
nIace has an interesting history. The
proprietor is a square faced man with q
bald head and brown mustache. He is
a Russian Hebrew, and learned the art
of hair dressing IN Russia. He practiced
it in Germany and Austria, also, before
he came to New York to beautify the
heads of the east side bellies. Many a
blushing kalla 0bride) has had her hair
done up in tasteful coils by his nimble
fingers previous to her wedding. Bust
ness was dull the other day when re-
porter called upon the barber.
Most of my customers are Jewish
girls, of course" he said. Chimes have
changed greatly since received my APP
premiership. The girls are not so pious
any more, not even the daughters of the
most orthodox families. There is
spirit of freedom in the air in this coun-
try which overwhelms many of the old
time customs, and Jews do here many
things which would cause their ostra-
cism in the Jewish quarters Of the Rus
sian villages.
GIRLS WITH SHORT HAIR.
"When 1 first began my work all
Jewish girls and women wore wigs.
They clipped their own hair very close
and wore the wigs over it. Before my
time they used to shave their heads.
The reason for this custom was that
some rabbi had declared it proper He
argued that it subdued the spirit of van
ity inherent in all women. His dictum
was generally approved, and it became
so general a custom that no pious Jew
ish woman would have exhibited her
own hair in public under any circum-
stances.
eff by chance her wig was displaced
and her own hair was revealed she con-
sidered it calamity, and prayed earn
estly that her involuntary sin might be
forgiven. The wigs were never allowed
to be ornamental, but were always very
plain and common looking. This Gus
tom still prevails in the small towns and
villages of Russia and Russian Poland.
Elsewhere it has been modified.
81 was abroad few years ago, and no.
ticed that in the cities the women have
established new system. Instead of
clipping their hair short all over the
head they now let it grow in bang in
front and clip the rest. They wear little
skull caps over the clipped part, and
only put on the wigs occasionally. Very
few wear wigs in the morning, and they
do their marketing without them. The
appearance of a lot of women with
bangs straying from under skull caps is
very odd.
"The influence of America upon tlis
custom Is remarkable. 1t is well known
abroad that it has been discarded here,
and the result is that most of the women
immigrants are prepared for it. In fact
have come across a number of girls
who let their hair grow secretly under
their wigs while they were still in their
native villages, and threw their wigs
overload as soon as they got on the ves-
sells that carried them to these shores.
Of course if they had been detected at
home they would have received scant
courtesy from the rabbis.
A QUEER CASE.
sit may seem strange that Chief Rabbi
Joseph doesn't insist upon the continu-
ance of this custom in New York, but .
imagine that he has been advised that it
would be impossible to enforce it. Most
Of the women wait until they come here
before they let their hair grow.
at is my business to train and trim it
after it is grown. You see even the girls
who have held to the custom until they
come to this country give it up when
they see how lonesome they are here. 1t
is no easy task to fix their hair, because
constant clipping has stiffened and hard
ened it. 1t is amusing, though, that
these girls are very critical. Once they
discard the clipping and wig business
they go to the other extreme 1t is as
though all the natural vanity that has
been pent up in them had suddenly been
let loose.
"About year ago was called upon
to testify in lawsuit about this custom.
Alexander Levy, Polish fur maker, had
been arrested upon the charge of Eliza
Blashker. She said that she had advanced
him money upon his promise to marry
her, which he had failed to refund when
the promise was broken. 1t came out
in the trial that he was anxious to marry
her, but that his parents objected be-
cause she wasn't pious enough. He adj
mitted on the witness stand that this
was the case. He said that his parents
had threatened to cast him off, and to
mourn for him as if he were dead if he
married the girl.
'sThe main objection, it seems, was that
she wouldn't shave off her hair and wear
wig as his mother did. The gIf1 gave
the keynote of the feeling in the ortho-
dox community here when she said that
she had refused to do this because the
custom had been generally abandoned,
and because she was an American and
didn't propose to make a guy of herself.
at is only rarely that find any wo-
men, even among the old ones, who ad-
here to the custom. My work has grown
away from what it was originally, and
now it is mainly hair dressing, after the
modes prevalent in this and all other
civilized countries. New York Sun.