Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-08-24
SNATCH|NG TRESSES
OeSp0iIerS of Woman'S Locks
in London.
SOME BOLD HAIR CLIPPERS
Men in English Capital Who Slash
and Ruin Gowns in
Various Ways.
;0ME BOLD HAIR CLIPPERS
From the London standard

From the London Standard.
CONSERVATION has been caused among
shopkeepers and ladies in the west end
by the activity OF the strange despoiler
who snatches curis OF artificial hair from
the coiffures of shop window gazers
The thefts are accomplished with much
deXterity. and bring considerable prot
to the perpetrator. These curls are made
OF human hair of the finest quality. which
costs guinea an ounce. A curl fire.
quently represents a value of e5 or &C.
medical man who keeps a close rec
ord of this queer type of theft stated:
This snatcher of artificial curls is OBJ
viously no monomaniac. but is out pure
ly to enrich himself. Ny records show
ing enough to clip hair. and not false hair
in broad daylight. Montmartre the gay
quarter Of Pars. was the scene of ex-
ploits OF this kind in 1870 the culprit
being mad Englishman who had
mania for cutting of women's hair
Earlier In the same year women and girls
IN Berlin were terrorized by q young
hungarian named Fodor, who was a VIC
tim of the same mental abnormality.
Hundreds Of Victims.
Fodor's victims numbered hundreds.
he often contented himself with stealing
small quantities of hair, but he more
often secured thick tresses, the loss of
which caused much embarrassment. His
skill In stealing hair was extraordinary,
and he frequently victimized as many as
a dozen persons successfully. To catch
the perpetrator a large force of detectives
secured the streets of the capital. After
QTrAGfad lCt ont cd 40 he Ia al G
palace. In the act Of severing a school
girls long plaits, his lodging was found
stacked with hair Of all hues. bound with
different colored ribbons. to which were
and texture. Many tresses had strange
inscriptions attached to them.
In July. 1909. Secondo Reverb, an
italian kitchen porter. who earned for
himself the name Jack Clipper was
sentenced at Marlborough street police
court to four months imprisonment and
recommended for deportation for having
cut a piece out of the back Of the dress
of theater attendant while on the top
of an omnibus proceeding from Charing
Cross: he had also cut the tail of wom-
ans coat on an omnibus in Regent street
and when arrested had four pieces of ma
terial, which had evidently been cut from
other womens coats in his pockets.
Dress-slashing Epidemic.
AN epidemic Of dress slashing dis
turbed tube and elevated railway users
in New York In the summer of 1909, when
hundreds Of cases Of mutilation to dresses
and coats were reported within a month.
The perpetrator was never discovered.
Many people suggested 1t was the work
of an INSCRIPTIONS dressmaking or tai
loring firm to increase trade. but no proof
Of this was forthcoming. and monomania
was ultimately accepted as the only rea-
sonable explanation
Men with a mania for ink singing are
perpetually annoying women in the streets.
and many beautiful dresses have been
November, 1907. there was a great out
break of ink throwing in Bond street,
Oxford street and Regent street, and only
in May of this year the terror reappeared
in the west end, the sufferer being a
Hanover square lady who had ten
guinea dress spoilt Not long before that
a lady's seventy-gLfnea ermine stole was
ruined in this way.
"In January Of this year a new oc-
cupation was discosed at Marlborough
street police court, when man con-
fessed that he chewed up bread and
dripping which he threw on ladies'
dresses, and was often well paid for
wiping them clean by Lnsuspecting wom-
charged with throwing green paint over
a lady's dress at Earl's Court station, al
most covering her from the shoulder to
the waist
I'm all probability concluded the doc
tor, '.these men cannot be classed as lun-
atics There are thousands OF people in
London who are apparently sane on all
subjects but one. These men either carry
out their nefarious practices for bus-
ness purposes. such as would the bread
splitter or the curl snatcher. or else, pre-
sumably sane i'm all other ways, they have
rooted dislike for garments OF a par
ticular color, and may be obsessed with
and unable to control the desire to change
their appearace.