Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1904-03-19
WIGS OF BARRIsTERs.
Man Who Makes Them an Important Pill
lar of the Law.

In the procession of judges and barris-
tiers with which the law courts have re-
opened the wigmaker plays conspicu-
out part. Tolstoy has said that in some
plays the maker-up is as greaat an artist
as the actor: it may be that the wigmak-
err IS as important a pillar Of the law as
the lord chancellor himself
wigs, like many other human institu-
tiOns, are not what they were The old
wig had to be made of human hair of n
dark color, and was pomatumed and
powdered every morning. An army OF
dreSsers went down to Westminster, and
there attended each to his circle Of eli
ents, with whom be had an annual con
( tract. 1t was not a particularly enjoy
able occupation, but it means Il steady
income, which was completely cut off
by the introduction of the horsehair wig.
We have wondered how the human hair
was procured. and from all we have
/ learned are still at liberty to imagine
that it came from the heads of felons
| the advocacy of other barristers had
brought to the scaffold.
To-day DR.. Tristram, chancellor of
the Bishop of London'S consistory court.
is the only considerable luminary who
wears the old style of wig, though untE
very lately he was kept in countenance
| by Mr.. Inderwick, Il. {. The wigs that
are worn now are made of white horse
hair, with faint admiXture of black
| They do not require to be powdered, and
only once in half dozen years or so
need they be recurled. Some half dozen
wigmakerS in and around the Temple
and Lincoln's inn-many of them related
by marriage, and all of long standing
gown and wig lawyers between them. 1t
seems that there is an opening for COM
petitor. The price of a plain barrister's
wig is to 5s, but it sometimes takes two
or three weeks to MAKE. The head of
Mr.. BriefieSS is very carefully measured
and the lines of his Uranium marked upon
the most suitable of a hundred blocks or
more that the shop contains. The prop
er surface is then covered with a trelis
of thin silk ribbon, carefully sewn to-
gether at every point of intersection. On
this trellis work the wig is carefully
built SO that at last it fits almost as
closely as the owners scalp itself. 9th
er Industrious fingers have prepared long
strings of hair woven upon silk cord
for the crown of the head little loops,
and for the back something more like
cropped hair. and technically called
SNAP" Hundreds of yards of the two
kinds are sewn on the foundation, till
all is closely covered, and then the va
rious curls, each very nicely made, are
added. Those two little curls that dan
gle down the back (Sir Edward Carson's
wig lacks one of them are each made of
two sets of hair, pleated like fingers in
prayer at the bend, and thence curved
together, and so deity knottod that not
Il hair is buckled from its place.
1t is long time before the average
bnrrister comes back for new wig.
Even the man who does not care to wear
n silk hat that has lost its pristine gloss
appears cheerfully in a wig 20 years
old In fact, an old wig is often q de-
Sideratum as 1t invests the head of its
wearer with an appearance of having a
large practlce-an appearance that is
sometimes contrary TO tho fact. One of
the largest of heads belonging to the le-
gal profession is thar Of Lord Alver-
stone.--London News.