The weekly Anglo-African., 1859-11-26
BARRIERS SIGNS.

shops of BARRIERS This is only less salts
factory than the conceit that the pole was
suggested by the word poll" or head The
minds of other antiquarians have been agi-
tated by this subject, and many of these
students of moth-eaten books have indulg-
ed in conjectures as hugely improbable as
these But the investigations of others
have been rewarded with success. Since
the emblematic stripes and ball have been
explained, we wonder how those knowing
scholars could have shot SO wide. of the
mark. But our ridicule is rebuked by CO.
lumbus, and we will not allow ourselves to
think that it was easy to make the egg
stand on its end.
The parti-colored staff proclaimed with
all the emphasis of paint the various ser
vices performed by the occupant OF the
sharp The ball that surmountS the pole
represents basin; the black spiral stripe,
decayed teeth the red, blood; the white,
the linen bandage that was bound around
the arm; and the staff itself the piece of
wood that the patient held in his hand to
assist the flow of the purple stream. These
symbols have lost their Specification, for
the lancet and the forceps have been ia
ken from the barber; but the shops before
which these pretty poles were planted
were, until recently, the resort of sufferers
from tooth-ache, and of the burly fellows
whose heads swan, and whose temporal
arteries seemed to their excited magma
tons swollen with dangerous quantity of
blood. Extracting teeth and breathing
veins gave dignity and an importance to
the vocation of barber, and it is a plausi-
BILE conjecture that at the first they were
surgeons of lower degree, and only add
ed the razor and scissors to their other in
struments when these branches of their bu-
siness declined.
There is some difference of opinion con-
corning the intention of the golden ball at
the top of the parti-colored pole. Some
curious scholars tell us it signifies money.
This Interpretation is sustained by the fact
that we have descriptions Of BARRIERS poles
that, instead of a ball, have label pasted
on the end, inscribed in large letters with
the word money If this conjecture be
true, the pole was simply equivalent to a
modern notice that such was invariably
required, and the beautiful sign, stripped
of all its emblematic significance, is made a
rebus. This may have been the weak in
vention of a solitary individual, but we
have the best authority for attaching a
higher meaning to this decoration.
This golden ball is Of greater antiquity
than the winding colors. Long before the
stripes embellished the pole, it was sur
mounted by basin, that all who needed
the skill of the chirurgeon might see it at
distance, and, taking heart, totter on The
propriety of placing this symbol of their
profession on pole is manifest, for in those
days personal conflicts were common, and
swords and hard fists inflicted serious
wounds. But the pewter basin was, in
course of time, removed, and its place sup
piled by the somewhat arbitrary symbol
that now decks The tri-color, staff.
Gay thus desert es a BARRIERS shop of
the olden time:
Ellis pole with pewter basins hung,
| Black rotten te, III in order strung;
Ranged cups that in the window stood,
Lined with red rags to look like blood
| DID well his three-fold trade explain
| w no shav'd, drew teeth and breath d a vein 4"
The following answer is given to the
querist who inquired why BARRIERS make
use OF the parti-colored pole as a sign:
"ln ancient Rome, where men lovd fighting,
And wounds and sears took much delight in
Man-menders then had noble paw
Which we call surgeons to this dav
was ordered then a huge long POLE
! With basins deck'd, should grace the whole
To guide the wounded, who unlopt,
Could walk on stumps, the others hopt;
But when they euded all their wars,
And men grew out of love with sears
Their trade decaying, to keep swimming,
They join'd the other trade of trimming,
And on their poles, to publish either,
Thus twisted both their trades together"
In the days when BARRIERS let blood and
dressed wounds, there were no newspa-
pers, and their shops were the favorite re-
sort of the people who were more fond of
gathering news than of working; and as
this large class of citizens were among the
Outrageous patrons, the men of various
functions took care to provide amusements
for those loungers. Musicians were en-
ployed at certain hours, puppet-shows were
exhibited to the gaping crowd, and we may
take it for granted that the profits of the
shops were increased by the sale of beer
The operators on hair and flesh were al
ways brimful of news; the latest accident,
the raciest scar lal, could always be obtain
ed fresh from their willing tongues, and we
can conceive the joy with which the itch
ing ears drank in the low sound that pro-
ceeded from the fluent takers who bowed
over them, as they sat in the chair that
Shakespeare tells us fitted the fat and lean.
And they occupied these comfortable seats
much longer than gentlemen are wont to
do in these days of enterprise and hurry,
for BARRIERS then not only used scissors and
razors, but they also pared the nails and
picked the ears and teeth.
An anecdote that is on record in work
published in 1907 does not convey very
high idea of the learning of this most use
full profession. The author tells us that,
having been affected with catarrh, by the
advice of his physician he was cupped by
a barber. After the operation was over,