The Canton advocate. [volume] (Canton, D.T. [S.D.]) 1877-1897, 1880-09-09
HINTS TO BARRIERS.
Suggestions by Mark Twain Which
will RevOlutiOnfZe the Art Of SHAW
Hartford Courant.

| Will RevOlutiOniZe the Art Of SHAW
ing.
| Hartford Courant.
1t is safe to say that nine out of ten
of the men one meets on the streets in
our cities shave, or rather are shaved
Some shave the mustache, some shave
the chin, some the cheeks Indeed,
one must 60 into mathematics to the
tables of permutations and combina-
tions to find how many varieties 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 of it. 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 Il very
| old custom, nor have we anything to
| say against it, except thatit is unnatural,
and is. and should be acknowledged to
| be, a 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 signiiication is true.
And while near y all men consent to re-
fer their shaving to few who make it
4 business, only fraction of that few
understand their art.
There is a financial blunder at the
bottom Of it that makes trouble all
through. The dogma that shave is a
shave is mistake. One man with
stiff beard and Il full face will choose to
have his whole expansive countenance
clean shorn; another will shave on his
upper lip. To each it is SHAVE" and
each is charged alike. One may re-
quire thirty minutes attention, the
other ten minutes. The first will dull
the 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 occupied three
quarters of the time he must be buster
than usually appears. This gives him
seven hours labor, and if he struck
day of half-hour faces his whole re-
ceipts would be $1.4O. If his luck gave
him ten-minute cases, he would take
in $3.50. Even this would not pay
were it not for the seductive side-issues
-hair-cuts and shampoos Of the trade,
that bring i'll more per hour than the
| fundamental industry
Now, as the price and the circum-
stances of shaving 60, it is a constant
hurry to finish man, as shaving
scarcely pays at the best, and if he is
one of the most absorbing subjects
full shave and stiff beard-it is loss
to work upon him. TO shave him care
fully 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 cases of
hair along the deserts of the cheek,
saves the razor and spoils 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 BARRIERS ought to
have the courage to charge for what
they do.
This done, a 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
olden times, it was as important to re-
move as the lather, 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 custom of civilization;
playing with soap bubbles is game of
childhood. 1t is now matter of luck
which of these operations falls to the
BARRIERS patron to-day.