The Wisconsin tobacco reporter. (Edgerton, Wis.) 1877-1950, 1914-11-20
The Fair One With
the Golden Locks
By RYLAND BELL

it as loose as any hair can be dressed
| Indeed, it resembled a balloon in it's
/: shape.
/ Having fallen in love with the young
lady's hair, proceeded to fall in love
with the girl herself. We boarded in
the same house; consequently | saw
! her often. But she kept very much
! to herself, and none of US became fa-
! miliar with her. Sometimes she would
sit with me after dinner for short
while. but none of the other boarders
was so honored. At such times eS-
pecially when we sat side by side. |
/! noticed a dampness in the air which
seemed to come from my companion
| | once asked her how she made each
! individual hair stand out by itself. and
she said that she washed it very often.
| There was a great deal of dust floating
about and it got into her hair. This :,
was the cause Of the frequent wash
ings
After giving her number of invita-
! lions | finally succeeded in inducing
Miss Winchester to go to the theater
! with me. When at the raising of the
curtain she took off her hat and dis
played her wealth of hair many per-
sons turned their eyes upon 1t admir-
ingly 1t seemed to me that not only
its hue was golden. but that in one
or two places it had a golden sparkle.
| asked her if she ever used a gold
powder She looked at me in star
tied way and said:
mo. What makes you think soy
Because there is place in your hair
which sparkles as though you had put
gold powder on it."
She put her hand up and asked me
where was the spot l referred to and
was not satisfied till I directed her
to it.
Miss Winchester held a position OF
some sort, but she told none OF us
where or what it was. She went out
about s o'clock in the morning and re-
turned at d. On her return she went
into her room and locked the door.
understood that she wished to rest till
dinner I could not understand why
if she needed rest, she took the trouble
to wash her hair so often. Women
usually make a great ado about wash
ing their hair. and when they do are
usually to be seen sitting about with
it hanging loose Miss Winchester
would wash her hair between 4 and
o'clock and come down to dinner with
it done up at half past 6. | once asked
her how she dried it SO rapidly and she
said by tanning it. This added to my
wonder that she should take so much
trouble after a days work.
| asked the young lady on several
occasions to give me lock of her beau
tifuI hair. but she always declined
One evening when we were sitting to-
gether a lock came loose. My business
requires me to carry a small pair of
scissors in my vest pocket, and l sur
reptitiously cut off the strand without
her being aware of what l had done.
When | went to my room | held the
strand near the gas jet to examine it.
On it | noticed particle of a substance
that reflected the light. Among my
knickknacks | kept magnifying glass
not a scientific instrument, but such
as could be carried in the pocket.
brought it to bear on the particle and
saw that it was either stone or metal.
l judged that it was metal. since one
Of it's minute faces reflected the light.
Moreover. moving the light about on
the lock | detected other particles.
though most of them were much small
er than the first.
| don't know what prompted me to
do so-idle curiosity, | suppose-but
put the lock in a glass Of water and
stirred it to separate the particles.
They settled to the bottom of the glass
| poured most of the water off, and the
rest of it, including the particles,
poured on to a sheet of white paper.
This l held over the gas jet till the
water had evaporated and the particles
stood out on the white paper inf
nitely small bits of yellow sand or
metal. Fishing little horseshoe mag
net out from among my other trinkets.
I picked one Of the particles up with
it. then knew that it was metal.
| said nothing to any one about the
matter. Indeed, L thought very little
of it till one afternoon. being in
building, saw Miss Winchester COM
ing out Of an Office on the door of
which, under the firm name, was the
word ''Assayers.' Assayers may be
expected to handle gold dust, and
suspicion at once came to me that the
particles had found in Miss Winches-
ters hair were golden | had preserv-
ed them and made a further examina-
ton to find that my surmise was right.
ceased my attentions to Miss Win
chester, but I dreaded to have it dis
covered that she was carrying away
gold dust that did not belong to her
in her hair and, asked for private in