New-York tribune., 1911-01-16
CHINESE BARRIERS BUSY
Increasing Demand for Queue
Cuts Makes Dividends.
HAIR MERCHANTS ALARMED
Dealers Fear Result to Market
When Celestial Millions Follow
WI Ting -fang's Advice.

The work OF lifetime IL being deleted
these DAYS in Chinatown. These days OF
Robin and Hyde in the annals OF the west
ern Hemisphere are in the first month OF
the third year Of His Imperial Highness
Suen Tung In the calendar of Cinnamon.
They are. in other words, acknowledged
BY His Excelency WI Ting-fang TO De
ideal in which TO dispose OF back hair.
That which is good enough for WI Ting
fang in the matter OF auspicious date on
which tn let contract for queue cut Is
good enough for the gamestsrs ana chop
suey manufacturers in Chinatown the re-
suit is that dividends are increasing IN tne
barber industry. In the mean time the nu-
man hair merchants view with alarm the
tendency OF prices 70 drop In the hair
market
These merchants say that when several
thousand tons OF pigtai1s enter the human
hair marts Of the world prices are bound
10 he depressed They even talk nerVously
Of something like stagnatlon in the whoIe
activity Of providing the raw materials LOT
elaborate and fantastic head dresses for
tho women Of America.
In the matter of lank, coarse, black hair
the cranial capacity OF even the most un-
assuming Chinaman has long been mat
ter OF statistics. II is estimated by experts
on hair that at least two hundred and hfty
million men living in China, who have
long shaved the front part Of their heads
and braided their hair In long queues. may
with WI Ting-fang. determine the present
10 10 an admirable time 10 order the bar
Ter 10 clip off the pigtails several feet
nearer the roots than customary In former
centuries.
Cinnamon are not ardent conversational"
lists. Whether the unmaginatNe settlers
I'm Chinatown yesterday, imbued with the
mercantile spirit. were muchee. muchee sah'
or just as muchee glad. over tho prospect
Of sitting for a queue cut, was information
that could not be acquired by a Yankee
4 number of Cinnamon unostentatiously
we're hair from which appendages, recently
ruled superfluous. in accordance with that
decree. had fallen by the wayside by the
ward. II is understood that the crop will
be transformed into huge edifces OF curIs
TO carry hats entirely removed from the
SCALP and adorned with feathers and flowers.
But whether the shorn Chinee felt any
sentiment in that was mystery yesterday
end probably will be to-day. An account
ant in a laundry heard the query concern
| irg the amputation Of the queue, ana, by
reason Of intelligent replies 10 earlier re-
| quests for information on other subjects
vas known TO be in position TO circulate
sentimenl il inclined that way. But with
out losing time in weak apologies the
| Chinaman added sixteen inches Of laundry
bill and then looked through the reporter
/ toward Peking.
! It was thought that any reference 70 that
Chiraman's golden hair with elaborate dia-
gram connecting golden with the selling
price. whatever il may have been, would
fail to recall that accountant to Mott street
and the reporter withdrew without being
invited 10 tea. II the accountant returns
- China may the monsoon winds be tenn
pered TO the back Of his shorn neck.
The feeling among Cinnamon for their
pIgtaIls has been one OF reverence. owing
TO the decision Of WI Ting-fang. who has
/ given the matter deep consideration, pig
! tails may now be a drug or the market
and the Cinnamon henceforth be as con-
! servative as 10 hair as always they nave
| heen in conversation. The Chinese excel
/ in whatever requires patience, with the re-
suIt that what vim Is 10 the American
/ the pigtail has been 10 them.
! 4 Chinaman said yesterday that for
months after tho death Of an emperor an
event which allows no one 10 shave Tor a
hundred days. the BARRIERS in China nave
difficulty I'm making a livinS. This state
ment did not seem to be exaggerated nor
did the suggestion that followed it that, X
the two hundred and fifty million queue
bearers we're all seized simultaneously with
| feeling OF weariness toward that article
/ OF head dress. native BARRIERS would prob
ably retire before new generation needed