Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-10-30
Wrath of the Feminine Sex at
Boiling Point.
AL BECAUSE OF RICHARDS
Postal Telegraph superintendent Is
sues Obnoxious Order.
REBELLION AMONG THE GIRLS
Dressing of Hair Must Not Include
Rodent, Says He-WeM
See, Say They.

A dispatch from Kansas City. Mo-,
states that A. B. Richards. district super
intendent of the Postal Telegraph Com
pany, has sent out this notice:
"On and after November / all lady
clerks and employees must discontinue the
wearing of rats in their hairdress. Please
govern yourselves accordingly
After the first gasp of astonishment,
the Postal Telegraph girls in Washington
exclaim with one accord:
well. that man Richards is not mar
ried man, or he would not try any such
foolishness as that.
And the truth is that Mr.. Richards is
not married, according to the Postal Tele-
graph people in this city. When inter-
viewed by a Star reporter on the subject
Of rat wearing a very serious Postal en-
ploye said that the reason MIR. Richards
had promulgated that order-which. by
the way, has nothing to do with Washing
ton-was that Richards wants to see all
the girls. as they appear wearing their
hair only. OF course it is unfair to be
won by bunch of false hair, and all
that, but still
Proposal Is Preposterous.
Why, listen to what the lady manager
in Washington has to say about Mr.
Richards blow at women's freedom-and
rats.
1T is preposterous. Here We are, nav
ing to make hats bigger and bigger every
year just because the girls will cram
their pompadours full of false stuff, and
now that the style has been hrmly es-
tablished with bigger hats every year,
and we are all stocked up with perfectly
hot hi
and deprives hundreds of women from
looking like anything at ALL What does
he want us to do, We milliners? Starve
to DEATH"
plume of a $40 creation that could not
be packed in a barrel.
Richards Must Be Crazy.
And a lady who has dealt in hair goods
and false hair. rats and puffs for many
years looked at the dispatch when re-
porter called on her:
"Well, all / can say is that this man
Richards ought to be examined by
committee
And she complaSently viewed counter
full of little fuzzy Ornaments-gray ones
brown ones, black ones and. cutest OF
all, dear little blond ones. They were
really made of imitation human hair.
They looked like quiet little guinea pigs.
They were rats, the gentlest things
Imaginable. and here this man Richards
does not like them.
Then there was a telegraph operator
Postal telegraph, too-in one OF the no.
tells, and she had rat in her pompadour
that would eat hole in the hui or an
ocean liner if the rat were alive. When
she saw that dispatch her hands flew to
the rat-infested pompadour and she ex-
claimed:
. "Oh, MERCY Well, they'll have to fire
me- tfelH% Ca use I amt going to look
like no back number for nobody. take 1t
from me.
Agitated Girls Reply.
Then there was the girl in the spien-
didly fitting gown. with hat that at
tracted attention all the way down Penn
sylvania avenue She had on these soft
gray slippers and silken hose. and her
hair was so blonde that person blinked
at it. She wore rat, Or else she had
an unbelievable Quantity of hair. 1t was
a piece Of nerve to tap her on the shoul-
der and say:
well. what would you do if you had
to stop wearing rat?"
what! I would not put up with such
a thing Here. l don't wear a rat. Who
are you, anyway. Go away from me. or
I'll call a policeman
Perhaps the much n1aligned Richards
followed the example of a telephone COM
death warrant of the wire rat. The metal
of the telephone headgear frequently
came in contact with the metal of the
wire rat and now and then a telephone
subscriber would find an unexplainable
difficulty on the line.