HER VICTIMS.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1367, 19 February 1912, Page 9

HER VICTIMS.

Tho theory that it was somo crackbrained lover of the "Mona Lisa" who eloped with her, in his fantastic passion, suggested to the "Lady's Realm" an inquiry as to the existence of such desperate lovers. Officials at the Louvre by no means laughed nt tho idea. They have reason to know that her enigmatic smile could have an extraordinary effect upon highly-strung temperaments." Sometimes it excited hatred, and a glass cover over the picture, and a guard beside it during the hours of sight-seeing, had to be provided, for fear that some unfriend of Leonardo's masterpiece should do her a deadly injury.

Hut far more often it was a sighing lover -who l»ecamo a nuisance. AI few years ago there was the ease of a painter named Ramcau, who was observed hoverins round the "Mona Lisa" continually. His mind had been overthrown by the picture's strange beauty, and his' daily dovotions at last were so alarming (o other visitors that he was forbidden to enter the gallery; whereupon, it is said, he promptly committed suicide. Less demonstrative worshippers were permitted to linger and look, and often left tributes behind them. "Not only love-letters, but gorgeous flowers were often surreptitiously thrown on the floor at the feet of La .Toconde during her 'life'" and the official chuckled as ho used the term, "and since her 'death' we have bean kept busy picking up bunches of flowers that mournful admirers scattered before her vacant place on the wall."

To write lovoletters. to a picture seems to be a weakness at times of people not otherwise crazy. Mona Lisa is not the only lady of the Louvre who has made victims. A love-sick count adored Titian's "Laura do Dianti," regardless of a few centuries difference in Ibeir ages. And several women have been enamoured by the charms of Titian's "Man with a Glove." A young girl who went to Paris to study painting remained to contemplate the hero of this picture. At all available moments she looked nnd loved, until so marked wa.s the infatuation that anxious friends conspired to keep her out of the Louvre.

The love stories attached to modern paintings have better endings. There a»o distinguished instances of persons who fall in love with an Academy portrait, seek out the original, and in consequence live happily ever afterwards. But affection lavished on a Titian model enn only be affection that is very much wasted indeed.

THE DELICACY OP THE HAIR. Ladies who neglect their hair lose it. Ladies who try to preserve their hair by experimenting amateurishly with lavish-lv-advertised hair washes and invigorators run great risks of ruining it. The hair is a plant of surpassing delicacy. It is exposed to many perils. It needs care, attention, scientific treatment. Mrs. Ro:lesixm is a specialist of the hair. Her wide experience has given her an exceptional knowledge of the various forms and degrees of hair trouble. If you consult her, she will tell you candidly just, what is wrong, and charge you no tee for the consultation. If your hair is.causing von anv anxiety at all, you will do well to bear in mind that you need immediato treatment. Delavs aro especially dangerous where tho hair is concerned. Call or write for an appointment—Mrs. Itolleston, 25C Larabton Quay. 'Phono 15119.*

That the world on the other side of the globe is, to a Caucasian, upside down in standards as well as geographically » npiareit from this newspaper item: ",\ Japanese convicted of murder pleaded yeslnrday in a Colorado court to be senl to the gallows rather thai to prism, as the Japanese consider imprisonment >mr<dishonourable than deitli. Tho court ig nored the plea."