HAIR-DRESSERS AND HUSBANDS.

Colonist, Volume XVI, Issue 1603, 31 January 1873, Page 4

HAIR-DRESSERS AND HUSBANDS.

A contempobaky relates the following:—

John Baker is a London hair-dresser; Mr. Demetrius Zezenia is a London merchant, and Mrs. Zezenia is the lady who run up a great bill at the establishment of John Baker. The items of this account are various,.and to the male mind (unmarried) some of them are mysterious. There is a bottle of " restorative calm" charged at 3s. 6d., which certainly is not quite so easily comprehended as " one -.pair of garters" (3s. 6d.) There is " a plait" valued at six guineas ; there is rouge worth, or said to be worth 7«. 6d.; there are curls, 425.; bouffons or combs, 265.; there are ten distinct charges for " washes;" there are brushes, pompadours, nets, salts, (Epsom ?) powders, floriline. Also pins, sixpence! Distracted by all these things, we fall back upon the sweet simplicity of the garters, charged, as we have already stated at 3s. 6d., and reasonable no doubt at the money. When this bill, amounting to £30 15s. 6d., was sent to Mr. Demetrius Zezena, being of Greek lineage he probably vowed by Jupiter that he would not pay it, especially as he had just been speculating in cotton and had lost most of his money. So the ■utter went into the Country Court, before Sergeant Wheeler.

The poor perfumer told his story. He thought that Mrs. Zezena was in effluent oirciimatancea, because " she came to his shop in silks." " Ah !" said the lawyer upon the other side, " perhaps they were not paid for"—which seems to us highly probable. " I should be extremely dissatisfied," said his worship the Judge, " if such a bill were brought to me," and we are by no means sure that some apprehension of the indiscretion of Mrs. Judge did not bias the judical bosom. "I think the account," he said "a mo3t extravagant one except for a person in very affluent circumstances ;" and truly if anybody is to rouge and wear pompadours it should be those, who could pay for the paint and padding. Many of these things, it, ap»enred,,were ordered for a special occasion. A Mr. Georgala, described as a gentleman who " had made a great deal of money in cotton," gave a fancy dress ball, nnd it was for this brilliant festivity that Mrs. Zezenia arrayed and perfumed and pompadoured herself. Much of the domestic history of the Zezanias came out during the examination. The husband, for instance, objected to golden hair wash (515.). His wife did not require it. He remarked toueliingly, f hat " sho had light hair from the time when he first knew her." He said " she used soda. Some time ago I found a brush and powder of some kind, nnd I tbiew them out of the window ?"—the ferocious tyranical Turk of a Grecian ! There hasn't been a greater domestic tragedy since the Vicar of Wakefield tipped over his daughter's concoction for the ooaiplexion. But we are not sure that Mr. Zezania was not, as a husband and a man perfectly right. The tresses were blanched and bound up—but not for him. Not for him was the pompadour put in position. Not for him were the cheeks made to emulate the rose, and the shoulders to vie with the marble. The fact was that when Mrs. Z. came home from Mr. Georgala's fancy ball, she took all these things off, and a sweet looking object she must have been when dismantled and ready for slumber. Poor Mr. Z.! To be confronted by this spouse pure and simple, to her unadorned and sadly needing adornment, find then to be charged £30 for those artificialities which had only made her resplendently delightful in the eyes of others, must have been too much even for the divine repose of the Greek nature. Twenty-one shillings for hair-wash! Forty-two shillings for curls! Seven shillings and six for rouge ! Six guineas for plaits! Why, the Maid of Athens herself would have.been dear at the money! As for the unfortunate hair-dresser, when he found that he was not to get the money for his little account he lost that profound respect for the majesty of thelaw which should control every British bosom; he threatened lo appeal: the artist-creditor became garrulous, and was ordered by the Judge "to hold bis tongue." So he had to content himself with two pounds six shillings —scarcely more than enough to pay for the ringlets! We observe a tendency among husbands, even in this country, to emancipate themselves from the thraldom of reckless shopping. To be classed as usurers, to be denounced as Bluebeards, to be charged with domestic despotism, and then to be compelled to pay away all their money for pompadours and the like—is not this enough to rouse the lion in their natures and lead to legal complication ? Ladies, beware ? There is a point at which patience ceases to be a virtue! It may be pompadours : it may be bouffons ; it may be this, that or the other—but there is a point!