WOMAN'S WORLD

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 220, 18 January 1911, Page 6

WOMAN'S WORLD

(Conducted by "Eileen"). I HUMAN HAIR. AX AUSTRIAN INDUSTRY. til Bohemia, Moravia and .Silesia tin marketing of human hair, and the making of human hair nets is an important' business. According to the United 1 States Consul at I'rague, large quantities' of what are known as combings are im-, ported from China, via Trieste or ilam-| burg, packed in cases wrapped in straw, and weighing from 1231b to 1301b per bale. Tills Chinese hair is all chemically bleached in a solution of hydrogen peroxide and assorted according to lengths, 1 then dyed colors and shades desire by! purchasers. The lengths vary from (i to 3a inches. The work of assorting ami classifying the hair according to various lengths is done by girls and women, beginners being paid from Gd to 7d, ami expert workers from Is 8d to 2s Od per day. The dyeing and bleaching are done by men, who receive £2 18s 4d to £3 16s per mouth. The human-hair nets are made from Chinese hair, as the nativa hair is too fine and soft. This business is largely a home industry, the work being done by women and girls. An experienced worker earns from Is to Is -Id per oay, but each nut-maker is obliged to have an assistant to tie together the single hairs in order to save the time of the net maker. Each week the networkers are given a quantity of hair, which they take to their Jiomes, and when the nets are finished and delivered by the workers they are allowed 2-0 per cent, for waste of material. The humanhair nets are exported to the United States, England, France and (jcrmany, very few being worn in Austria. All of the hair cut in Austria for export is taken from the heads of the peasants in Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia. The first quality comes from Moravia and Bohemia, and the less valuable from Silesia, while a considerable quantity of inferior hair also is cut in Hungary. *The quality of the human hair depends upon the prosperity of the people and the care taken of it before cutting. The hair is collected by pedlars or hair merchants, who must be of good reputation in order to obtain their licens?. The maximum amount of hair purchased by a shred dealer on one of these trips is from 111b to 141b, while many return with less than 51b. Th» price paid depends on the length of the hair and its color, chiefly the latter. The entire head of hair is not sold,at one time usually, but one braid being disposed of at once, and another portion being disposed of in about four years. No hair is cut from the heads of dead people or those suffering from disease. All the native hair is shipped in its natural state, without being bleached or dyed, and the estimated annual exports arc placed at 13,0001b.

"WHO LETS THEM WEAR THEM?" . "Where do the London women get their clothes? Who makes them? Who puts them on for them? Who lets them wear them? It's a burning shame." Thus passionately a writer in a magazine with an America.n audience. The poor gentleman would seem to suggest that we have displeased him (writes a London lady). We should be the more interested if there were more evidence that he had devoted to us the calm and careful study which we deserve. However, it is good and exhilarating to be criticised in this spirit of love. After all, if you cannot delight, the next best thing is to disgust. It is testimony that you have force of character. Here is what our critic lias said: "If we in Xew York should see a man strolling down Fifth Avenue with tan shoes needing polish, baggy trousers, a sac coat, with large checks, and a bright green tie, the whole surmounted by a dull silk hat, and the face under the hat smoking a bull-dog pipe, we should take a good look at the picture and say 'Oklahoma.' Btit it' might just as 'well be London." • ••

The one passion of our husbands is to walk in the park With silk hats over check jackets and tan boots. In Bondstreet such dedorative schemes are so common I,hat'--fchey , -'c;eeitc no remark. You see them crowding 1 all the way down Piccadilly, and I 'St.' Jnmes-street bloomi with themjl-ikie--a (garden of marigolds, and, speaking broadly,'no one wears anything else irf-M!' Mall, \n fact, it is to see this •gWgeous^sight that Americans come to L/olidoriJ . .1 .■:

We admit) itj,".wd"glory in it. A bold man, indeed,- was heard to boast of it the other night'to Miss Jane Washington, his neighbor at dinner. She listened with interest. "Well, 1 now!" she cried. "Now I know I .havo : -lnve±! the genuine British joke. Do-vou-<To it <9l'ten? Does it hurt?" "- ■■'■'*'

She was taken'firmly in 'hand. There were remonstrances:/ It was pointed out that this jcvkd cahre from America. She became melancholy for the space of three minutes..

NEW METHOD OF WASHING The following is- a '-method of washing I that has been-extensively adopted in I Germany and' introduced into Belgium. • Dissolve two 'pounds of soap in about I three galloiis of water, as hot as the j hand can Wea'r,-and add 1 to this one tablespoonful of turpentine and three of liquid ammonia. The'-'oniSture must then be well stirred ftfr U'C-or three hours, taking care to covet* up the vessel containing them as nearly hwnietically as possible. The clothes ii-re 'afterwards washed out and rinsed in the usual way. The soap and water may he re-heated and used a second time, but > in : that case half a tablespoonful of ammonia and a table-, spoonful of tui'pentine must be added. The process is said to cause a great eco--1 nomy of time, labor and fuel. The linen .scarcely suffers'at all,'as there is little I necessity for rubbing, and its cleanliness and color are per-fect. The ammonia and turpentine, rilthbugli their detersive action is great, have no injurious effect upon the linen, and while the former evaporates immediately, the smell of the latter is said to disappear entirely during the drying of the clothes. ; r.;| IV. .','■■ HEATING A ROOM. "[ often \vonder," writes Sir Henry | Lucy in the Sydney Morning Herald, I "why we, adopting in our daily life so much that is 'made in Germany,' do not

borrow their system of heating a room. It is'the cheapest and most cll'ective J have ever basked in. Spending a week of bitter winter weather in Germany, I ever looked forward to the snugness of my private apartment in the hotel. It was heated by a stove, really decorative in appearance, standing well into the room, connected 'by a bright metal pipe with « closed-in chimney. It was not the ordinary stove, offensive to the traditions of an Knglishman brought up by the bright open lire. The .gates left open you could see the incandescent mass within. It never wanted poking, rarely required replenishing. When that was necessary a servant came in with the scuttle of briquettes and made it up to run another eight or ten hours, i was agreeably surprised when my bill came to find no charge made for the fire. In this country at least hali'-a-crown would have been added to the daily cost for a fiiia going, «s this was, day and night. Calling the landlord's attention to the omission, lie explained that fires were not charged for as extras. It was not worth while. This fire, bright, clean, smokeless, requiring the minimum of attention, cost in fuel a maximum of 3d per day. The stove, lined with tiles, that held and ; radiated the heat, cost from £3 to ,t'f>, but it lasted for generations. Mere, living close at hand, seems a partial solui tion of the coal difficulty as far as it I affects the domestic hearth in this conntry."