The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1882-02-10
Barber Sh0nS.

The largest barber shops in the world
are those of London, where there are
some BARRIERS who employ as many as
fifty men. Everything is arranged i'll
them for the prompt transaction Of bust
ness, and there is little chance for that
beaming civility which distinguishes the
tonsorial artists of SUMMER chimes.
In New York there are barber shops
Of great elegance, wherein the noise of
fountains, the singing of birds, the chirp
OF the cuckoo clock, the distant, coca
slonal sounds of the musical box, are
mingled with the clip of the. scissors,
the scrape OF the razor and the low muir
muir of conversation. Some BARRIERS
there collect and exhibit some interest
ing objects, such as old play-bills and
foreign coins; others delight in stuffed
cumming birds, glittering like gems on
their perches; others prefer living crea-
lures, such as revolving squirrels, the
gifted parrot and the still small croco-
die.
There are few such barber shops in
Boston; but in the metropolis of New
England there is somewhat less geniality
Of manner on the part of the operators,
who generally contine their remarks to
the utterance of a single. word, "Nextp'
This syllable is spoken with energy.
In Philadelphia there is style Of bar
| Der shop that is as characteristic as it is
pleasing. 1t is very small, consisting Of
one or two little rooms, and is carried on
by enc man, who has his little circle of
customers, who grow gray under his
| scissors.
These little shops are ''just round the
corner, or up a few steps, away from
the observations of the crowd, cool, qui-
ct, elegant, and Philadelphianly clean.
| Oh, so clean! No one can quite know
how clean an interior can be who has
not calmly studied one of these. And
the bland politeness of the artist is pa
| ternal. A @
Chicago barber shops have particu-
lar interest as marking how far Chicago
has gone in shedding its Westernism.
In the early ages Of that renowned city,
the barber shops were unspeakably
disagreeable. A dozen dusty and shaggy
men waiting, dozen more undergoing
torment, --ail things rough, extempor-
lzed, and infinitely unclean.
/ Every five years for the last two de-
cades has wrought total change in the
style of the Chicago tonsolial artists,
until at present there are barber shops
wherein there Is scarcely a trace of the
western town. There are some BARRIERS
of almost. Bostonian paucity of words.
and a few shops in which mocking-
bird is kept for talk.
An American who goes for the first
time into a Berlin barber shop, will
think that the artist has mistaken him
for Prince Won Bismarck. The barber
receives him with bow of reverence,
and, when the operation is complete, he
announces the fact by bow equally
profound, and the utterance of "Obedi-
ent servant A visit to one of these
establishments gives q Republican an
idea of how the world must look to a
prince.
In Vienna, barber shop sauvity reach
es its finest development. When the
customer enters, every one of the per-
formers say, in a soft, respectful tone.
"Most devoted servant" 'My highest
esteem. " When he leaves the place, he
is dismissed by a similar chorus of com
pHments and devotion.