THE SAME GIRL.

Globe, Volume XXIV, Issue 2634, 15 September 1882, Page 3

THE SAME GIRL.

The girl with the long bale bee appeared again, or, more correctly ipeaking, the usual paragraph as to her has (says the “ New York Times ”) begun to the rounds of the pren. She is, of young and beautiful; her hair is jet black, " and measares exactly 6tt Tin in length, so that it trails on the floor when the walks with her back hair down; it is permanently attached to her head, and she has oarer felt ■ moment's headache. This same girl—or paragraph—appears erery two years. The first recorded appearance was in a country town in 1842, and anyone who consults the file of a good daily newspaper will find her recurring every two years since that date. It should be noted that she has never once appeared in any city, bul always in a remote rural rillsjsusad that she invariably asserts that she has never ffifc a moment’s headache. Kow it must hs J struck many thoughtful persons that it is veryodd that this girl, with her wealth of back hair, has never fallowed the example of bearded women, and pat herself on profitable exhibition. It is still more odd that no reader of the “ Times ” has over seen this long-haired girl, or even personally known anyone who has seen her. The evidence of her existence is strictly confined to newspaper paragraphs, and of direct personal or pictorial testimony to her existence there is not a scrap. The conclusion which inevitably suggests itself to a man of cool judgment and scientific habit of thought is that no sueh girl exists or ever has existed. There is, however, a very simple explanation of the matter. It is a well established fact that different varieties of ardent spirits when drank to excess produce different sorts of visions. Thus, New England or Jamaica rum leads its victims to see eea serpents—the New England variety differing from the Jamaica in the length of their alleged manes. Brandy invariably reveals vast quantities of snakes, aad when adulterated with strychnine produces visions of swarms of insects. Our owe native whiskey conjures up visions of rats, and from the size and color of the rats the expert physician can tell whether the patient has drinking rye whiskey or wheat whiskey. Now, what is more probable than that girls with long back hair trailing on the ground are the result of indulgence in that favorite tipple of the country—cider brandy or apple jack. The victim of over-indulgence in this deceitful beverage finally reaches the poiut where, to his disordered vision, there presents herself an imaginary girl with long back hair. If he happens to be addicted to writing to or for newspapers, he instantly sits down and writes an account of his vision. Before investigators can discover him be dies and is buried, and no one suspects him of having palmed off upon an innocent newspaper a delirious dream as a valuable news item,