The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1904-05-30
HA|RP|NS OF WIRE ARE
FALLING INTO DISUSE
Woman Sacrifices to Vanity the
Weapon with Which She Could
Do Anything.
SHE'LL OR IMITATION USED

1t was at a recent public dancing party
given for children that one of the small
bellies approached a young woman specta-
tor. seated in the balcony. The belle car
ried her dancing slippers in her hand and
on her feet were pair of unbuttoned shiny
new shoes with rows of cleaning buttons.
"Please'm lady will you lend me hair
pin?" asked the belle shyly. Il haven't got
any button hook and me and ray sister we
have to put our shoes on cause we're 60
in down TO the depot to meet mamma'n
papa and then we're going away on the
train"
The sympathizing spectator appreciated
the drawback Of going TO meet mamma and
papa and going off on the train with ones
or rather two's shoes unbuttoned, so
she took her hat off and tried to find a
wire hairpin TO answer the small girls
need. But there was no wire hairpin any
where in her head-they were all Of shell
so-called.
The man who came down town the other
day and found his desk locked and his key
lost had the same experience that the
small girl had. He thought he could borrow
or beg a wire hairpin from one of the
stenographers and pick the lock: and the
scheme might have worked only that not
pin. The modishly dressed hair OF each
was secured 10 its mOorings by fastenings
OF shell, and there was not even a wire in
visible" in all the pompadours and coils.
Thus woman loseth a mighty weapon. 1t
used to be said that with hairpin woman
could do anything-and she, indeed, did
most things from fastening buttons to
splicing the ends of broken machine straps
with the pliable wire lengths. But the
wire hairpin, if it hasn't fallen into in
nocuouS deseutude, is very close to the
brink, and nine out of every ten women pin
up their hair instead with hairpins of she'll,
celluloid, rubber horn-and lock-picking
or button-hooking with horn or shell is
failure. Oddly enough the retirement of
the wire hairpin, while due probably to
| the dictates of fashion, is cOmmonsensible
| idea as the shell or horn pins do far less
| damage to the hair and the scalp than the
hard, sharp-pointed little wire pins.
The hairpins of rubber, celluloid and horn
are all very much of muchness far 5
quality goes, but the horn ones are prefer
able in appearance. The rubber ones are
black and wholly ineXcusable in effect, but
| the hairpins of celluloid and horn, and es-
pecially the latter. reproduce In a great
| degree, the colorings and effects of those
| of real she'll Indeed one is frequently at
loss TO tell which is which unless one
pays the bill, in which the difference is very
obvious. The horn hairpins sell for from
% to 40 cents q dozen, according TO size,
and come in the straight styles, or with
! the one or two "wiggleS" that their more
| expensive fellows show. In the larger
styles the pins are sold singly and are real
1 ly handsome.
The hairpins of real shell begin their price
| marks at 20 cents each, and run on up to
i 50 and S. each. AT the latter prices the
hafrpfnS are, of course, large and heavy
! and exceedingly beautiful, and in the more
| expensive pins there some which really
! cannot be initiated in the humber horn
and celluloid-pins of amber-colored Shell
| or with heads of amber. and pins of the
| deeper colored shell.
| The real shell hairpins, of course, do not
| find throng of buyers. Still, there are a
| number of Indianapolis women whose
| tresses never know an imitation hairpin.
| Most of the shops which handle hairpins
| have each few customers who buy shell
| hairpins frequently and in comparatively
| large quantities, and, as these few buy a
dozen or so hairpins every few weeks. that
| one item in their bills is of magnitude
| that would startle the average hairpin
| buyer.
| Some. people might wonder, since the horn
/ hairpins reproduce so satisfactorily the ap-
1 pearance of real shell, that woman
would care to spend much money in
| hairpins just to know for her own satisfac-
ton that her loops of hair were set with
real shell. 1t would have TO be mere man
| that had the wonderment. however, as ev-
cry woman knows that there is the same
subtle soothing sense in possessing real
shell hairpins that there is in wearing silk
| underwear. Neither may be obvious to
| others, but each is very satisfying to the
wearer.