The Savannah morning news., 1903-06-21
PRETTY GIRLS ON SHOW
Wear Costly Gowns and Are Much Admired

WAX forms, or dummies" said the
dealer, "have iron feet. Why have
they iron feet? To weight them down,
so that they will stand erect"
He stood in his workshop, a room as
big as concert hall. All around him
helpers were making legs, heads,
hands, trunks, feet Floods of clear
light from the glazed roof fell upon
heaps of limbs, upon rows of heads,
upon mounds of bodies. The place had
CHASTITY look. 1t resembled the scene
of massacre.
The art of making show figures"
said the dealer, has improved" He
toxic up in his hand the head of a
young girl The red lips smiled re-
vealing white teeth. The brown hair
curled gracefully. The eyes We're
bright. There was a dimple on the
cheek.
"A head like this" he said, 'is worth
SIS Heads range in price from 81 to
$50. They are made of wax; they are
hollow; the eyes are of glass, and the
hair is human hair. I'll tell you how
they are made
"Wax-a great quantity of it's
boiled in big kettle until it has the
consistency of water. 1t is then pour
ed into a row of hollow moulds of
heads. that stand awaiting it. The
moulds are hung up and shaken about.
This process causes the wax to cool
and to adhere, in crust, to the
mould's inside. The agitation is kept
up until the crust of wax has reached
the thickness that the operator re-
quires, whereupon the hot wax, the
surplus, is poured back into the ket-
tie About the mould, which is made
in two halves, jacket is placed.
when the drying is complete the
mould is taken off and man goes
over the wax head with sharp in
strument, clearing out the nostrils
and ears and smoothing away the
lines created here and there by the
juncture of the moulds halves He
also inserts, with deft movement,
glass eyes in the empty eyesockets.
Now the head passes to a girl--a
girl with a strange sort of needle,
the eve of which is open, or split. at
the top. The girl first puts on the
eyebrows. She threads the needle with
hair. runs it through the wax, and
Withdrawing it, leaves the hair be-
hind, for the needles eye that is open
at the top makes it inevitable for the
hair to stay where it is put The girl
works with great rapidity. In a few
minutes she has the head adorned with
a pair of long and shaggy eyebrows.
Next she puts on the hair. For
this work she uses the same sort of
| needle the hair being in every case
human. For the cheaper heads, how
ever. It is Chinese hair. a human,
but very lustreless, coarse variety.
Beside her stands a tiny spirit lamp.
This she applies to the wax when it
becomes so hard that the needle
won't penetrate II easily. As soon
as she finishes one head she passes
on TO another. while the head she laid
down IL taken up by a man.
This man cleans II first with kero-
sene. Then he paints il all over
pleasant and inviting flesh color He
tints the cheeks. the ears and the nos
trils with carmine. and he paints the
lips with rouge. 4 girl-a profession
al hnirdresser-nOw takes the head
N hand. curis the hair and dresses n
fasbionably and applies coat Of
French powder 10 the face. Tho head
d now finished.
Hands and feet are made. ~
rule. ~ papler mache. euameled and
painted = flesh color ~ that they look
] Ike the best wnA Hands feet bodies
legs and arms are made in hollow
mouldf"
The dealer led he way 70 the back
~ fhe fh0p.
Here" be- eaid "afe some men
making f0fma ~ PAPER mnfhe now
watch fhfW"
The Hprkmen had moulds ~ various
slice ana rhapff before them ore 40
mould ~ NJ baud an0fhfr fhaf ~
fogt 9 fbfg fbsi ~ whole aeafe.