Evening Republican, Volume 15, Number 129, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 June 1911 — Chinese Queues for Milady’s Wig [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Chinese Queues for Milady’s Wig

CHICAGO.— Prices of coiffures are due for a slump and “milady of the boulevards” may soon be promenading down Michigan avenue bedecked in the very latest of late imported puffs which but recently formed the most conspicuous part of the hirsute adornment of the Celestials of South Clark street. It may seem strange that the most fashionable of Chicago’s smart set will be able to purchase real "imported” puffs, curls, braids, switches and rats which were once the queues of Chicago chop qpey waiters and Chinese laundrymen, but the fact remains indisputable, for according to the edict recently passed 1 " China 90 per cent ot all the Celestials in the United States have divorced themselves from one of the most typically distinguishing features of the race—the queue. Following a similar move in the Chinatown of New York, San Francisco and other cities, the Chinese of Chicago the other day kept the barbers busy with the shears and by night there were few left along South Clark street who. could boast of the “pigtails” which were their pride of other days. Hip Lung, mayor of Chicago’s Chinatown, and the leaders of the

famous Moy family, Moy Tong Gee and Moy Tong Hoy, all bowed with good grace before the power of the scissors. The hair is being shipped by the Chinese to London where large English hair dealers will convert It into coiffures of the latest fashions and of various shades, and then ship “real imported” puffs back to American soil. The money which the Chinese in this country will receive for the hair is to be sent back to China. Some time ago an edict was passed to the effect that til citizens or former citizens of China might cut off their queues or retain them as they saw fit. It was formerly one of the strictest laws of the country that every citizen must wear a queue, and those without them were not allowed to return to the empire on pain of severe punishment.