Connecticut western news., 1880-09-29
The Philosophy of Shaving.

It is safe to say, says Mark Twain, that nine out of ten of the men one meets on the streets in our cities shave, or rather are shaved. Some shave the moustache, some the chin, some the cheeks. Indeed, one must go into mathe- matics to the tables of permutations and combinations to find how many varities of shaving are possible. Woman is ac- cused of being the party who devotes her time to appearances and frivolities of the mirror, but, after all, man does his share af 1t. The reason he escapes the charge is that he blandly sets down his decorative work as being matter of necessity.
 And it is true that shaving is a very old custom, nor have we any. thing to say againstit, except that it is unnatural, and is, and should be acknowledged to be, concession to the looking glass and to vanity. But the point is, that old as is the art, it is a singular thing how few know how to shave. "Nearly all men shave in the passive voice." This may be taken as the grammatical phrase or as an acknowledgment of the voice of the barber which they have to endure. Each signifcation is true. And while nearly all men consent to refer their shaving to few who make it business, only fraction of that few understand their art.
 There is financial blunder at the bot tom of it that makes trouble all through. The dogma that shave is shave is mistake. One man with stiff beard and full face will choose to have his whole expansive countenance clean shorn another will shave on his upper lip. To each it is Ca shave, and each is charged alike. One may require thirty minutes attention, the other ten minutes. The first will dull a razor, the second not affect its edge. To each it is ten cents. Now, barber's working day, we will assume, is ten hours long. If he is oc- cupied three quarters of the time, he must be usually buster than he appears. This gives him seven hours labor, and if he struck day of half-hour faces, his whole receipts would be $1.4O. If his luck gave him ten-minuto faces, he would take in $2. 10. Even this would not pay were it not for side issues-the hair cuts and shampoos of the trade-that bring in more per hour than the fundamental industry.
 Now, as the price and the circum- stances go, it is constant hurry to finish man, as shaving scarcely pays at the best, and if he is one of the most absorb ing subjects-full shave and stiff beard it is @ loss to work upon him. To shave him carefully takes too much time and costs the edge of the razor. To skim over his face, cutting off sections of beard here and there, and leaving odd oases of hair along the deserts of the cheek, saves the razor and spells the person who pays for the operation, and who should not be entirely forgotten. The scale of prices ought to be regulated by what one gets, and the barbers ought to have the courage to charge for what they do.
 This done, 8 revolution in the art would follow. Speed would not be the great aim. Attention could be given to the removal of the beard, which, in old times, it was as important to remove as the father, and the man who went out of the barber's shop would leave satisfied, instead of hoping that the next time it would be better. We recommend these considerations to the trade without charge for the advice. Shaving is 8 cus- tom of civilization; playing with soap bubbles is a game of childhood. It is now 8 matter of luck which of these operations falls to the barber's patron 1 to- day,