The age-herald., 1897-10-27

watch ffhe movement with fascinated gaze.
 Some are young, yet they are already calculating the resources of the future. Othess,z who have passed the meridian, are Wfsffully studying the clock-work tragedy which offers them eolaee. but man, brutal opponent of womans sui frage though he may be, hufTies by with a sinking heart at such monstrous exhibition. To him the thing Is unspsak- able. In one of the cabarets. of Mont m3tr5 there used to be greWsome show. representing by optical illusion the decay of a body in coffin. This callous trif1ng with death was scarcely more horrible to the imagination than the wax image, moving it's false hair to and fro with monotonous mockery.
 It may be said that the male person who feels this way is a sentimentalist, and he admits that the courage of wo- men, especially in the form which may be called the instinct of beauty for sell preservation, fills him with wonder. Think of that poor lady whose fright full end has been the subject of public inquiry. She was the victim or some precious stuff, a petroleum hair wash, which exploded on her head, and ln- fiicted such terrible injuries that she died in lingering agony. I'll faut souf1rlr pour etre belle. That threadbare max i'm has never had more appalling illus tration. It was quoted the other day by Admiral Maxse, who seems to tnlnk that a. beautiful woman must suHer when she receives the open homage or the world. The gallant admiral evident ly has no conception of the real endur- ance of beautiful women. The will run the risk of horrible death simply to en- nance the charms which he believes to be a source of secret tribulation 10 them. It is said that since the tragic affair in Conduit street the denanaS 4or p.l-u- h air acn 0. Some painter, with a turn for the fan- tastic, might give us a picture or loveiy women thronging to the hairdressers $, and greeting statue of fashion Wlth Ave Caesar morituri te salutant! II would be pleasing subject for Jan van Beers. Experience shows that the ele- msnt of danger has never deterred Wo- men oni .A~ pu.sllt oI the psaut.1ul; in some cases, It may even add sort of morbid luxury to the gratihcation or personal adornmeEJt. It is certain that a great quantity of an inferior kind or petroleum is sold for application to the hair, and it needs a bold prophet to ar firm that the accident which has sud- denly brought this trade into pupllclty will deprive the vendors or tht4r GUS tom. | he nerves of cur ''petrol=uses' a1e steeled against alarm, like those Of the fair cyclists who ride in the London streets, with death lurking under the wheels of every omnibus. Deficiency or imagination is supposed by some philos- ophers to account for the intrepidity of some women, but the penalty Of beauty which mus. be preserved at all hazards, or the desire to attain resem- blance of the distracting gift, is inspira- tion enough to make many woman brave.
 A woman's hair bids fair to remain the delight and enigma of this planet Half the industry and energy of man. hood seems to be devoted to it; when ft is not abundant, countless ess; ;nces tempt it from sterility; when its color is wrong, what encyclopaedia can mar shaf afl the unguents which rectify the oversight of nature? Tyres cannot ex- haust it's praises, and no romancsr can win his spurs until he has made the hair of his heroine quite different from that of every other miracle of loveliness in fiction. Swift's epitaph on Stell love tok oken-"Only a woman's hair"-is at once the measure of mans presump- ton and of his ineptitude.