Connecticut western news., 1884-02-06
HIS FIRST SHAVE.
THE FIRST TIME A YOUNG MAN EN-
 TIERS BARRIERS SHOP.
His Feelings nt the Time, and the Expert. ence ho Coos Through Before Coming OuI.
From the Milwaukee Sum-

l GfGhI Oi APO1 HI SNOAJ
 man s. 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
 hard look when notifying him that 1t is
 now his turn. But he is determined to
 put on Q stiff upper lip, as worldly
 people say, and go through the opera
 tion 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
 down lies too far back. When told to
 bring up his head, he hastily does it,
 and knocks over the stool in the opera
 tion. This causes the"blood to rush to
 his face, and the embarrassment which
 produces 1t Is not at all modified by de-
 tecting the barber exchanging significant
 glanoes 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
 sessed of an irresistible desire to smile
 sheepishly. This proneness to grin is
 inexplicable, but 1t is inseparable from
 the first shave, and the victim is obliged
 to resort to every facial artifce 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 barber
 shop, and how he looks at that cater.
 piller-looking, mouldy-complected 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 the
 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
 women 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 all con-
 versation and call attention to his lip,
 and when they go on talking about
 something else, he 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,
 and not to men who have hair on their
 lips.
 From the time boy first notices the
 dew on his upper lip, to the time the
 moustache is unmistakable. which is
 about year and half, he is miserable.
 He does not go to barber at first, but
 confdes in his father, if he has one, and
 the father finally gets out his razor and
 slaves the boys upper lip, for Q Joke,
 partly because he was boy once him.
 self. But during the operation the
 father makes the boy feel 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 q sign of hair.
 After this operation the boy rubs his
 fingers on his lip and he can feel the
 beard, and it is harsh, and bricks his fin
 gers, and he wants to go right off and
 rub that lip against the cheek of his girl, to show her that the world moves. Then he waits weary months for it to grow out again, and wonders how it is that people recognize him with his moustache cut of. When it comes out again he takes his fathers razor, while the folks are to church, and slaves him. self. His parents know what he has done, when they come home by the blood on the towel and the court-plaster at the corner of his mouth, where he has gouged himself while trying to look , cross-eyed in a mirror, and shave him. self left-handed. The next time the beard comes out he calls up all his reso- lution and goes to q barber, and this Is where the above quoted remarks are pertinent to his case. But the writer 3 above has not told half of the annoyance i the barber gives the boy. The first \ thing the barber does Is to put cloth t around the boys neck, and take down a 7 pair of shears. Though the boys hair ? may be as short as pie crust, the barber g pretends he supposes the boy wants his - hair cut, and the poor boy has to strug- - gle with his voice, and bring it away I out of his throat, and say he wants to be n shaved. The barber lays down the n shears, comes up to the trembling boy, !, laid out in a chair, looks at him, and
 says, "Where? ?" That is the trying
 time for the boy. He feels that he would like to murder that barber, and he would ) give all he has got if he could get out ol y that shop, but he has to put his finger g on his upper lip, and in Q firm voice sdy ], "There l" though he feels more like cry. r ing. Then the barber says "Oh," in ( j. tone of voice that sounds as though il @ was all he could do to keep from snort e ing right out laughing. In about two y seconds the barber has the boy shaved - and says "next," and the boy gets out y of the chair in q profuse precipitation e though it may be the coldest day ot e winter, and when he pays for the shave l, he is proud to notice that the barber s charges him full price. It would xii 1T him to have the barber charge bal
 rates. Then he goes out, and as hs