Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1914-10-15
The Fair One With
the Golden Locks
By RYLAND BELL


golden hair but have never seen but
one head of hair the real color of gold.
That was Miss Winchester's. She wore
it as loose as any hair can be dressed.
Indeed, it resembled balloon in its
shape.
Having fallen in love with the young
lady's hair. proceeded to fall in love
with the girl herself. We boarded il
the same house; consequently l saw
her often. But she kept very much
to herself, and none of us became ia
miliar with her. Sometimes she would
sit with me after dinner for a 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 great deal of dust floating
about, and it got into her hair. This
was the cause of the frequent wash
ings.
After giving her a number of invita-
tons | 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 it 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.
l asked her if she ever used a gold
powder. She looked at me in a star
tied way and said:
mo. What makes you think 500"
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 f. On her return she went
into her room and locked the door. |
understood that she wished to rest till
dinner. 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 and
O'clock and come down to dinner with
it done up ut half past 6. once asked
her how she dried it 50 rapidly and she
said by tanning it. This added to my
wonder that she should take so much
trouble after days work,
asked the young lady on several
occasions to give me Il 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 | sur
reptitiously cut off the strand without
her being aware of what had done
When | went to my room | held the
strand near the gas jet to examine it.
On it | noticed a particle of Il substance
that reflected the light. Among my
knickknacks | kept q magnifying glass
not 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.
| judged that it was metal. since one
of its minute faces reflected the light.
Moreover, moving the light about on
the lock | detected other particles.
though most of them were much small
err than the first.
l 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 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.
| picked one of the particles up with
it. | then knew that it was metal.
l said nothing to any one about the
matter Indeed. thought very little
of it till one afternoon, being in a
building. l 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-
ter's hair were golden. had preserv-
ed them and made further examina
ton to find that my surmise was right
ceased my attentions to Miss Win
chester, but dreaded to have it dis
covered fb1t Shn carving