Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-11-30
WIGS OF BARRIsTERs.
Man Who Makes Them an Important
Pillar of the Law.

From the London News
In the procession Of judges and bar
r1sters with which the law courts has re-
opened the wig-maker plays q conspicuous
part. Tolstoi has said that in some plays
the maker-up is as great artist as the
actor; 1t may be that the wig maker is as
important pillar Of the law as the lord
chancellor himself
Wigs. like many other human institutions,
are not what they were. The old wig had
to be made of human hair Of dark color
and was pomatumed and powdered every
morning. An army of dressers went down
TO Westminster, and there attended each to
MS circle or clients, with whom he had an
annual contract. 1t was not a particularly
enjoyable occupation. but it meant a steady
income, which was completely cut off by the
INTRODUCTION of the horsehair wig. We have
wondered how the human hair was pro-
cured. and from all we have learned are still
at liberty to imagine that 1t came from the
heads OF felons the advocacy of other bar
rlsters had brought to the scaffold.
Today DIR. Tristram, chancellor Of the
plshop OF London's consistory court, is the
only considerable 1uminary who wears the
old style of wig, though until very lately he
was kept In countenance by Mr.. Inderwick.
X Z. The wigs that are worn now are
MADE of white horse hair. with faint ad-
mixture Of black. They do not require to be
powdered, and only once in half dozen
years or so need they be recurled. Some
haI1 dozen wigmakers in and around the
Temple and Lincolns Inn-many Of them
related by marriage, and all Of long stand
lng-gown and wig lawyers between them.
IL seems that there Is an opening for
competitor. The price Of plain barristers
Wig 1s 20 5s., but 1t sometimes takes two or
three weeks to make. The head of Mr..
Brleness Is very carefully measured, and
the INES OF his Uranium marked upon the
most suitable of a hundred blocks or more
tnat the shop contains. The proper surface
Is then covered with a trellis Of thin silk
rlopon, carefully sewn together at every
point OF intersection. On this trells work
the Wig is carefully built, so that at last
~ Nus Almost as closely as the owners scalp
ITSELF Other industrious fingers have pre-
pared long strings Of hair woven upon silk
coro-1or the crown of the head little loops.
ana for the back something more like
cropped hair. and technically called "snan,"
hundreds of yards of the two kinds are
sewn on to the foundation, till all is closely
covered, and then the various c,1rls ach
very nicely made, are added. Those two
little curls that dangle down the back (Slr
EDWARD Carsons wig lacks one of them)
are each made of two sets Of hair. plated
nks Hngers IN prayer at the bend and
! thsnce curved together, and SO deity knot
teQ that not hair Is buckled from its place.
IL is long time before the average bar
rlster comes back for new wig Even the
man VINO does not care to wear a silk hat
mat mas lost Its pristine gloss apnears
cheerfully in wig twenty years old. In
fact, an old wig is often a desderatum. as
II invests the head of It's wearef with an
appearance OF having q large practice-an
appearance that IS sometimes contrary To
the fact. One of the largest of heads he.
longing to the legal profession is that of
Lord Alverstone