CURRENT TOPICS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXVI, Issue 14192, 15 October 1906, Page 6

CURRENT TOPICS.

The poverty-stricken heroine with a good head of hair can now raise money as she used to do in mid-century fiction. The prico of hair has gone up with a hound, and a beautiful plait, is saleable at a very high price. Fashion lias been demanding a greater and greater display of hair during the last year or two, and next season the fashionable bats will have wide brims to set on abundant locks. Of course, these little matters do not trouble men, but they do trouble women, and, according to a “ Daily Nows ” contributor, many women are dependent on the coiffeurs for- the beautiful coils and curls of hair which they display. The largest supplies of human hair are said to come from country districts of France, where the women have from time immemorial worn the pretty local costumes, of which the head-dress or “coiffe” plays a prominent part. Beneath the ooiffe of lace or net all the hair is tucked smoothly away out of sight, and it follows that the young country girls attach very little importance to their hair. Accordingly, when the “ ooupeur,” or “cutter,” as the agent of the hair merchant is called, descended every summer upon the market town at fair time,' and established himself in a central position, announcing that ho' was prepared to pay a good price for long tresses of hair, he found plenty of clients. The “ coupeur’s” whole stock-in-tradb is his shears, scales, and a trunk in which to pack the hair. Armed with these articles, he stood and waited, and in ordinary seasons both shears and scales were in constant requisition. One of the best centres for hair is Limoges, which furnishes both fair and dark hair, and attracts merchants from all countries of Europe. With the opening of the annual summer fair, the young girls of the district come from miles round to do their year’s shopping at the tempting booths,, and they fall an easy prey to the hair buyer. This year, however, there has been a marked disposition on the part of the provincial lasses to keep their hair, the reason being, it is said, that the city fashions have begun to influence even the conservative country districts. The prices) may he judged from the fact that a woman and three daughters disposed of their hair recently for nearly £2OO. An American tourist who had been travelling in Great Britain was so impressed by the “tip” system that; on the eve of his departure from Liverpool a few weeks ago ho was moved to send his views on the subject to a London journal. He declares that the average American has a profound contempt for any grown and able-bodied man or woman who accepts a. tip, and he despises a condition of society and business which allows hotel proprietors and' railway and other companies ,to count upon the tips of their patrons to supplement the wages of their underpaid servants to a living scale. In America, he says-, the" only ablebodied men who are habitually tipped are the porters of the Pullman care and the waiters in hotels .and 1 restaurants. The first are, without exception,■ negroes, and the second are either negroes or foreigners. A tip offered to a native-born whit© American railway or other employee for a simple performance of'his duty or a mere act of courtesy, wo are told, would be refused with scorn. Tire tourist has some severe criticism for British habit. “It has been remarked,” ho says, “ that everyone in England below the rank of a lord or a bishop will accept a tip. My short experience pretty nearly confirms the remark. I have handed a tip to every person who has done me the slightest service or answered an inquiry, and in not a, single instance has my tip boon declined or been unexpected. It seems to me that the average Englishman carries his hand back down, cupped and in position to receive tips, and I cannot believe that any person who can bring himself to accept a tip has any sense of pride or self-respect.” The colonials are like the Americans in regarding the tip as a petty bribe, and the tipping system flourishes here, wo believe, only on the coastal and intercolonial steamers, though hotel waiters are not always insulted if a half-crown" is left where can find it. But it has not yet reached such a pa&s that the average value of the week’s tips is estimated by hotel and restaurant employers in fixing the’ wages ,of the employees. It is a- little curious that in the report of the Select Committee which was appointed by the House of Lords to inquire into juvenile smoking there is no mention of the fact that a legislative effort has been made in this country to keep young people away from the use of tobacco', The laws passed in other British colonies, in Canada, Capo Colony and several of the Australian States, are mentioned and commended, but our own Juvenile Smoking Suppression Act, which has now been on 1 the Statute Book for three years, appears to have been overlooked altogether. Tiro information concerning the steps that have been taken in other countries in the same direction is, however, very interesting. In the United States a large majority of the State legislatures have passed laws against juvenile smoking. In Maryland the age limit is fourteen, and in other States it varies between fifteen and eighteen. In thirty-five States the evil results of smoking are taught in the common schools, while in Alabama, Georgia, Idaho, Louisiana, Nebraska, Nevada, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin and Wyoming no smoking is allowed under the age of twenty-one. In Massachusetts, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Vermont and Washington the selling of cigarettes or cigarette papers to a minor is made a misdemeanour.

A HAIR FAMINE.

JtTVENILE SMOKING.

In Japan any person under th© age of twenty found smoking is liable to have his smoking instruments and his tobacco confiscated, and his parents or guardians, if they are shown to have consented to the offence, to a fine of about two shillings. A shopkeeper who ; sells smoking instruments or tobacco to a youth under the prescribed ago may be fihed in a sum equal to twenty shillings. Germany excludes tobacco from Ke military and naval schools, but France, Belgium, Spain and Greece have made no attempt to restrict the use of the insidious weed. Portugal has laws against the habit, hut they are rarely enforced, and cigarette smoking is almost universal with all ages and all classes in th© country. Norway has given power to the municipal authorities to prohibit the sale of tobacco to juveniles, but so far no local authority hag taken advantage of its power. The report concludes with some typical cases of tire effect of cigarette smelting upon boys, which are alarming enough to make even adults forswear tobacco for the rest of their lives. It would be a very .good thing if a few of 'these cases were described in the reading books used in our public schools.