SILLY SENSATIONALISM.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 171, 13 April 1908, Page 3

SILLY SENSATIONALISM.

liTJio r event of; tho ! liour . (says .:. the. : ;New York correspondent; of-a London newspaper) is the appcarance of Mrs. James B. Eustis. one of tiio most boautiful .of New |York's young matrons, in a scries of tableaux vivanis and; Oriental dances got up by Mrs. Waldorf .Astor and a; number of other •welMnora. ladies. When' the curtain was rung up ■ Mrs. .Eustis was discovered posing as. Salambo, the Carthaginian heroine of Flaubert,'with a live boa constrictor twined round her body.'. The spectators shuddered m horror. ; " ' .For weeks past socio t}' has been preparing for the tableaux, ■ which were organised for charity. Mrs. Eustis rehearsed nor picture with a " property "snake, and was. forced to submit to .'much banter on the unreality of the cotton.serpent'with spring stuffings. One of tier friends "dared ° lier to appear with a.genuino snal:e. She took ,up the challenge, arid , a._ large boa; constrictor . was immediately obtained from the' Zoological Gardens. Slumbering in a; basket of roses the huge reptile was brought to the stage door, .arid, with -the assistance of tho manager, Mrs. Eustis coiled it round her..waist and neck, with , the 'head stretched ; across her •breast and resting on her left .arm. Tho audience gasped with astonishment and dismay as . thoy saw tho serpent slowly waving 'its neck oyer the arm of the beautiful Salambo. She, however, preserved her poise admirably, and repeated the performance,in the evening. .When the reptile began to', writhe in dangerous fashion she calmly gave its head a tweak and. maintained her position-.till the curtain fell. : Thunderous applause greeted . the. performance, but the intrepid lady refused. to respond .to calls for an encore. Tho sno.ke weighed 46 - lb., and .Mrs., Eustis .confesses that', she only, submitted . to' the ordealbecause her honour was involved in the challenge given her.. .: . She is the heroine of the day, and - the society. dames of Now York are enviously puzzling their' brains to: invent a fresh sensation which, shall rival the awful thrill with which sho and her baa constrictor furnished them. . ' .■'■■■ ■ It'may not bo generally, known that Japan doas -a large, export trade" in human hair. Tlio total oxpbrt for the first eleven months of- 1007 was 105,0001b., valued at about £10,000. . Great Britain's share ! was lees. than 2 per cent; of the total. Tho bulk of the business is done from Kobe to Franco and America. ' The hair i 3 all black in colour and rather coarse, and consists almost entirely of the combings of women of tho lower classcs. It is. collected during spring . and autumn all over tho country, the best quality being obtainod 'from tho women of Miyakejima in Is4u, who aro blessed with hair of extraordinary length,- and is then 'sold to middlemen in Osaka and Tokio. These either clean and sort it thomselves, or sell it in bulk to tho hair merchants," who proparo it for the oxport'market. "When first bought tho .hair is in a dirty, tangled mass: it is passed through coriibß, then washed and hoatod with sand as to removo the grease which adheres to it, at tor which it is again combedj sorted into different qualitios according to length, and made up into bundles. In the Toldo district, instead of being heated with sand; it is boiled in water with soda. This is said to render tho hair cleaner and consequently lighter, so that tho Yokohama pricos por lb. appear dearer than tho Kobe prices. ~ .