Orange County observer. [volume] (Hillsborough, N.C.) 1880-1918, 1884-04-12
From the Milwaukee Sun.1

Some writer has given the following
description Of "the first shave"
''The first time in q BARRIERS shop is an
event Of Importance in every young
mans life. He will wait, in some cases,
three weeks after determining to do it,
and On the. eventful day he has been
known to sneak by the shop seventeen
times, summing up his courage for this
trying ordeal. On entering the door he
feels that every one in the room knows
that this is his first appearance, and
that they are microscopically searching
for his beard. The barber gives him a
bard look when notifying him that it is
now bis turn. But he is determined to
pnt on a stiff upper lip, as worldly
people say, and go through the opera
ton with the stoicism Of a veteran. He
is remarkably sensitive TO ridicule, and
not for the world would he have the
barber know that this was his first shave.
So he sits on the arm OF the chair, in
stead Of on the seat, and in getting
lown lies too far back. When told to
bring mp his head, he hastily does it,
and Knocks over the stool in the opera
ton. This causes the blood to rush to
his face, and the embarrassment which
produces it is'not at all modified by de-
tecting the barber exchanging significant
chances with, the operator at the next
chair. When the lather is being put
on, he cannot control the working of his
imagination and he finds himself pos
sesscd Of an irresistible desire t. smile
sheepishly. This proneness to grin is
incxplicablc,, but it is inseparablo from
the first shave, and the victim is obliged
to resort to every facial ~artifice to over
come it, and then doesn't succeed"
The above is true to nature, but it is
not nature enough. The writer should
have gone on to state how the young
fellow feels for about six months before
he gets up courage to go to a barber
shop, and how he looks at that cater
piiler-looking, monldrcompIected stuff
on his upper lip. He sees the fuzz on
: his lip before anybody else does, and he
wonders that all the world is not on to
it.. He goes closer to his girl, on tho
way home from school, hoping she will
see it, and if she does, and speaks Of it,
before he has called her attention to the
phenomenon, he is very happy, and
votes her one of the most discerning
in the world, and he resolves to
make her his wife, if he lives. After his
girl has spoken of the hair on his lip,
the boy feels better, and when he goes
into the presence Of grown people, he
expects they will at once stop al con
versation and call attention to his lip,
and when they 60 on talking about
something else, be feels hurt, and when
some one tells him to go to the: door and
let the dog in, or bring in some wood,
he feels crushed, and thinks such re-
marks should be addressed to children,
IND not to men who have hair on their
lips.
From the time q boy first notices the
dew on his upper lip, to the time the
moustache is unmistakable, which is
about a year and a half, he is miserable.
He does not go TO a barber at first, but
confdes in his father, II he has elle, and
the father finally gets ont his razor and
shaves the boys upper lip, for a Joke,
partly because he was q boy once him
self. But during the operation the
father makes the boy feet small by tell
ing him that the razor is spoiled, the
edge all taken off, and finally paralyzes
the youth by showing him the lather in
which there Is not a sign of a hair.
After this operation the boy rubs hi.
fingers on his lip and he can feel the
card, and it is harsh, and pricks his fin
gers. and he wants to 80 right of ant
rub that lip against the cheek of hi,
girl, TO show her that the world moves
Then he waits weary months for it t
that people recognize him with hi
moustachc cut of. When il comes on
again he takes his fathers rrzor, Will,
the folks are 10 church and Shlves him
selt. His parents know what he he
done, when they come home by tn,
blood on thetnwel. and the court plaste
at the corntr of his mouth. wher. he ha,
Gouged himself while trying 10 lool
cross-eyed in a mirror. and shave him
self left-hande4f. The next time III
beard out h" calls up all his reso
luton and goes 10 a barber, and this i
where the above quoted remarks ar
pertinent TO his case. But the write
.bove has not told half of the annoyan
,he barber gives the boy. The frs
thing the barber does is to put a clotl
around the boys neck, and take down
pair OF shears. Though the boys hal
may toe as short as pie crust, the barbe
pretends he supposcs the boy wants hi