The morning news., 1897-04-16
NEW YORK's STRANGE BOARDING
HOUSE.
Filled With People whose Looks Are
Being ArtiRciaIIy Improved.
FROM the New York Press.

From the New York Press.
There's a clearinghouse uptown with
collection of inmates as queer in their
way as ever was gathered under one roof
and the landlady doesn't shelter museum
freaks either. People come thousands of
miles TO be star boarders here for time.
Many of them would like TO travel incog.
That being impossible, they keep to them
selves and their rooms constantly during
their stay. All these folk are patients who
come to New York; to have their eyes made
Jess prominent, the nose made more or
less Roman, their extra hair and insight
ly moles and birthmarks removed. While
being treated they stay-at their boarding
house for weeks. From the babe to the
gray-haired grandpa, all ages are repre-
sented. Though the operation costs mon
ey, some pretty poor people manage to
save and scrape enough together to pay
the doctor.
Protruding earsis the most common dis
figurement, with misShapen noses close
second. An army lieutenant came all the
way from the Pacific coast recently to have
his ears laid fiat on his head. That was
done so easily that he had his nose tinker
ed with, it's shape not pleasing him. Then
his vanity got the upper hand of him and
he wanted to have all his beard burned
out. He represented that 1t was case
OF killing his beard or his beard killing
him, as it was so heavy that shaving was
worse than a surgical operation. Per
haps he had in mind the saving OF time
involved in a hairless face. If his courage
had equaled his vanity he would have re-
turned with cheeks as innocent of the pos
sibiities of beard as most young girls.
But his grit left him after the electric
needle had been applied a few times
Noses with fiat bridges, or no bridges
at all, are built up, and these patients
the while, like most of the others, have
to submit to bandaged head. For days
and weeks they are wrapped up, and, be-
ing rather unsightly objects, they keep
in seclusion. While a fair share of these
made-over folk were actuated by a desire
to increase their attractions by having
slight impediments to beauty removed,
some came to get rid of positively ugly
appearances. An unfortunate woman,
whose jaw was frightfully distorted by
a burn received early in youth, is the
latest boarder. Cutting, pulling, pushing
and grating will have to be resorted to
in her case.
One of the most distressing disfigure-
ments is a growth of hair on a woman's
face. THE bearded lady from Borneo"
may not care, for she gets more money
because of her appearance than she possi-
bly, could were she natural and common
place. A married woman came to the
boarding house some months ago to stay
while each separate hair on her heavily
bearded face was being pulled. Her hus-
band never had mentioned her appear
ance in her presence. She was supersen-
sitive, and, imagining that every one she
met had eyes and mind fastened on her
continually, withdrew from society. One
day her husbandssaw a notice in a paper
of d dermatologist's work in removing
bemishes. Without a word he pointed out
the paragraph to her 1t was the first
allusion he ever made to her unfortunate
condition. She understood, and in a few
days she announced that she was going
to New York. When she returned intro
ductions were necessary.