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Show ILQNDES MAY NOT VANISH j 3 i t : t : i i : : BY nX2TRI PEXT3 Zt7 0IS liitlllltl "You are sad." ahe aaid, "because a m&n or science baa aaJd that the blondea are to disappear in fix hundred years. But It is not true. They axe not to disappear dis-appear ever." "I know," I replied. "The daughter of Llllth are immortal. I have read the' Talmud. But there are to be more dark women to dye their hair. Women are always as the poets wish them to be." "They dye their hair-," she eald. "'It seems to be red as copper. It does not make of them blondes. The only blondes have hair which people who never see or understand anyihlns described as black. "Through It the sun plays, turning it into gold. Consult the text of the poets, i Milton-says of Ere: " 'She as a veil down to the slender waist j ;.'t."N'j Her unadorned golden tresses wore : !'.!! ' Disheveled, but in wanton ringlets waved .... As the vine curls her tendrils.' "Homer named Venus 'Golden Goddess.' An epigram of the Anthology says, 'Whether I see your hair black or blonde, by Queen, your grace is the same and shines with the same luster.' "This is not to mention that she wore sometimes a wig, but that he saw her head in the sunlight occasionally. Then her hair was similar to that of Chrysls. "The only blondes of the great Venetian painters had black hair, except when it was turned to the sun. The gold of the heads that Titian and Veronese painted was not visible to every one that saw them In life. "They dyed their hair," I said. "I have read it in the 'Gil Ornamental delle Donne' of Marlnello, a physician of Modena in 1562; in the Compendlo de Secret! Razlonali' of Leonardo Fioravantl, a physician of Bologna In 1675 In the 'Se-crltis 'Se-crltis of Jacobus Weckerus, a, physician of Basle in 1829." "You 'would have wasted less time," she said, "In consulting the paintings themselves. There are Titian's 'Lavinla at the Louvre; Glorglone's 'Astrologer at the National gallery the astrologer's wife In this picture was doubtless Lu crezla Borgia; the 'Venice Enthroned of Veronese In the Doges' palace; Tintoretto's Tinto-retto's 'Ariadne in the antechamber of the Embassador in the same place. "If you had consulted them you would have learned that black hair I mean hair which seems black, the Venetian hair that one sees In the gondolas and on tbe Plana San Marco Is the only one that is Titian red. I am sorry to talk In -this way. I have an air of trying to attract attention. But only hair which seems black in the shadows has a beautiful red tint In the sun. "It Is the only hair that Is every gloriously blond. Blond hair fades or takes false reflections of night. It has to be touched with henna of peroxide, which abolishes the quality of reflecting tints. Do you remember that the hair of the Muses was violet? "It was violet because It was dark enough to let Itself be tinted by the complementary com-plementary color of gold In the sun's rays. Surely Titian, Veronese, Tintoretto and the others painted the beautiful hair of their picture from black-haired models. "Aristocratic women of Venice- found chemists to color their hair, afterward, in accordance with the paintings. But they did not succeed, I am sure. Have you seen Holbein's portraits of the Court of Henry VIII. T Bartolozzl engraved them in 1792 to 1803. The 'Arte Biondegiante,' the art of making blond hair, was practiced by Holbein's models. It is evident. It deceives nobody." "And your conclusion is?" I asked. "That there is no danger of the vanishing of blondes. The man of science that says that says It from his knowledge of science. Well, a woman's hair In a man of scfence's view Is similar to a flower In a botanist's hand." |