The Portland daily press., 1892-04-29
THE HON {.


The best false hair comes from France,
where it is sofd by the gramme at prices
which vary according EQUALITY and color
says the New York Herald. The
most expensive false hair is the silver
white variety, which is in great demand
and very difficult to find. This is due to
the fact that men grow bald in a majority
of cases before their hair reaches the
silver white stage, and women, whether
old or not, are not disposed to sell their
white hair at any price. They need it
themselves.
Still women growing bald must have
white hair to match the scant allowance
advancing age has left them. The chem
lists have taken the matter in hand and
are able to produce by decoloration OF hair
of any color tolerable grade OF white
hair, which however, has q blush tint
not at all approaching in beauty the
silvery softness of hair which has been
bleached by nature.
False hair Of the ordinary shades is OBJ
tanned in two ways. The better and more
expensive kind is cut directly from the
heads of peasant women, who sell their
silken tresses sometimes for a mere song
and sometimes for fair price, according
as they have learned wisdom. Every
year the whole territory of France is
travelled over by men whose business it
is to persuade village maidens, their
mothers and their aunts to part with
their hair for financial consideration.
These men are known as cutters,
and there are at least 500 of them in the
country always going from house to
house, from farm to farm, and through
all tt illages in all the departments,
seeking subjects for their scissors. A
good cutter averages from two to five
heads of hair day, and he pays from
two francs to 10 francs for each. 1t is es-
timated that single head Of luxuriant
growth weighs about a pound.
5 The false hair thus obtained at the
tears and regrets of many foolish maid
sells for an exaggerated price, which
puts it beyond the reach of the ordinary
purchaser. Besides, it is evident that
the supply Of genuine cutting must
fall far short ofthe demand for false hair.
So the majority of this wavy merchandise
is obtained-from the rag-pickers
? These busy searchers of ash heaps and
garbage barrels collect every day in the
city of Paris alone at least 100 pounds of
hair, which some hundreds of thousands
OF women have combed out of their heads
during the preceding "a hours. This
hair, all mixed together and soiled, one
would think, beyond redemption, is sold
to hair cleaners at 81 to $1.50 pound,
which shows simply that the fair sex in
one city alone throws away annually
about 100000 francs worth of hair, for
which they afterward pay-and it is the
r,os, ,1,,1 II Ill
600 900 francs.
The cleaning of this refuse hair is an
operation which requires careful atten-
ton. After the hal has been freed from
the dust and dirt and mud and other I'M
pleasant things with which it has come
in contact in cutters and slop-buckets, it
is rubbed in sawdust until it shines once
more with it's pristine gloss, and then the
process of sorting out is begun. In the
first place skilful hands fix the in
dividual hairs in frames with the roots
all pointing the same way, and then they
are arranged according to color.
Finally. when sufficient number of
hairs of one color have been obtained
nor is this number SO immense as is gen
orally upposed-they are made into the
beautiful braids which are shown so Sc
ductively in the windows of fashionable
e0iffeurs.
1t is said that the cutters in France
have piled their trade SO industriously
that at present it is hardly possible in the
whole republic to find woman who will
sell her hair. The business has been
done to death, and now the enterprising
dealers i'll false hairs are sending their
representatives through Switzerland,
Belgium and Norway, canvassing for I'M
sophisticated lasses who will allow them
selves to be robbed of their hair, which
is-half their beauty, for afew pieces of
silver,
DRIED FRUITS.
A common mistake made in cooking
dried fruits, which has rendered them
justly unpopular, is to soak them a
few hours and boil them up rapidly and
consider them ready for the table when
they are cooled. AS matter of fact, the
preparation of dried fruit for the table is
one of the slowest of processes. The
fruit should be washed and soaked in
clear, cold water for at least twenty
four hours. 1t should then be put on
the stove in the same water it is soaked
in and heated very slowly to the boiling
point. Most fruit should simmer at least
three or four hours without any sugar
being added to it. PAe sugar should be
added just about twenty minutes before
the fruit isready to be taken up. April
cots, peaches, prunes and almost any
other dried fruit cooked in this fashion
becomes delicious conserve, rich with
the flavor of fresh fruit The liquid
around the fruit in such case will be
almost jellied when it is cold. Serve it
with cream. Prunes cooked by the ordi-