, or any of the
countries in the northern part of Europe. Lately, however, they have
begun to have a good deal of success among the lower classes of the
Italians. Their imports from Italy are already comparatively large, and
they seem to be increasing every year. Such an easy way of getting money
as this opportunity affords must appear vastly attractive to the swarms
of professional beggars who infest every highway, church door, and
public square in Southern Italy, and whose enjoyment of the
indispensable _dolce far niente_ cannot be spoiled by merely submitting
to the operation of having their hair cut off. It is probable that they
furnish much more of the hair brought from Italy than do the
laboring-classes of the cities or the honest _contadini_ of the rural
districts.

The idea of actually wearing hair which once belonged to some member of
"the unspeakable" _lazzaroni_ tribe cannot be considered a fascinating
one. At the same time it is at least not more unattractive than the
consciousness of having fallen heir to the capillary adornments of a
Cantonese tonka-boat girl. And in reality such a feeling, though natural
enough, would be based upon nothing but imagination. All the hair
purchased and used by the dealers in Paris, Marseilles, and other French
cities to which the Chinese and Italian hair is brought goes through a
number of preparatory processes, which cleanse and purify it thoroughly;
and when it is ready to be sold again it is probably in as
unobjectionable a state as hair can reach. As for the imagination, if we
were to allow it to govern us entirely in all such cases we should soon
find ourselves restricted to almost as few comforts and conveniences as
those unhappy historical characters whose constant fear of poison
reduced their whole diet to boiled eggs. Still, the feeling is one of
which it is very hard to rid ourselves; and in all probability the
ladies who derive the most unalloyed satisfaction from their
"additional" braids are those who have had them made from "combings" of
their own hair. J.A.C.

* * * * *

LITERATURE OF THE DAY.

"The Rise of Silas Lapham." By William D. Howells. Boston: Ticknor & Co.

In his later books Mr. Howells has shown that he is on the point of
discovering the secret of the best novelists. Unabashed by the
difficulties and dangers which beset the realistic writer, he has gone
to work to describe the simple machinery which pu