Wichita eagle., 1886-08-27
9ails gas1e
THE BARRIERS POLE.
A CRAFT WHICH REQUIRES SKILL,
COURTESY AND INTELLIGENCE.

A CRAFT WHICH REQUIRES SKILL,
COURTESY AND INTELLIGENCE.
The Barber - . Practical Phila.thro.
pist and Apostle Of Cleanli.sss-None
bat the Shaved Can Woe the Fair.
Curling and DyeinE.
It used to DO the fashion to laugh at bar
bers, because the BARRIERS shop was the center
of the village gossip. The barber heard every
body's business and impaired it to everybody
else, or got the reputation Of doing SO. For
my part, regard the barber as a practical
philanthropist and view his calling with re-
spect When the head is feverish and aching
after e sleepless night, he can relieve the dull
ness Of the brain and spirits by shampooing,
which has always been a part Of his profess
sion, and charm away the headache by skill
full and gentle manipulation with tonic or
bay rum The man who sat down in the bar
bers chair seedy and feverish, gets out of it
refreshed and ready, like an ambrosial re-
cruit, with an eye like Mars and the front Of
Jove himself, for the business or pleasure Of
the hour.
CNSHAVED AND SLOFENLf.
None but the shaved can WOO the fair &C
ceptably. Unkempt and ragged hair and q
short, bristly beard arc distasteful to the
sight Of woman, and avert her sympathies.
They lower the sentiment of respect and
esteem, moreover, in our fellow-men There
is, perhaps, no more humiliating remark
which one man can make to another than
Hadn't you better get shaved" 1t is equiva-
lent to limiting that one has not washed. The
greatest reproach that can adhere to genius is
that it goes unshaved and slovenly. When
poor Hartley Coleridge obtained an Oxford
fellowship he was welcomed and admired for
his brilliant talents by all his associates until
he disguised them by appearing often at the
communion table with uncombsd hair and a
weeks stubble on his chin. So is it, as Homer
said in the Iliad, that death or life stands on
q razors edge"
1t is the BARRIERS rather then natures touch
that makes the whole world hin. Shaving
was sometimes the emblem Of mourning
among the encients; At other times, the neg
lect OF it was e sign Of grief Plutarch tells
us in his lives thGt when the Iacedonians in
vaded Greece it was found that the soldiers
long boards gave fine purchase to the enemy,
and hence, perhaps, the "clsan shave" which
afterward became the fashion at Athens.
St Paul shaved bis head at Cenchrea, for he
had a vow"
In oriental countries, Is in China, the shaw
ing of the whole or part Of the head is the
function Of the barber; but in Christendom
the first BARRIERS were the monks. In recent
years the clergy-those Of the Episcopal de-
nomination particularly to have adopt
ed eastern rather than western ideas as to the
decorum Of beard in clergymen. Quite q
number CT the English, American and Cana
dian Episcopal clergy wear boards. In Eng
land, up TO thirty years ago, clergyman
with big beard, unless he we're missionary
In foreign countries, would have been stared
at in tho streets, and still more in the pulpit.
But, about that time, e late bishop of Roches-
ter, DR.. Wigram, very foolishly delivered a
charge to his clergy GgeinsS the wearing of
boards. The result, OF course, was the con-
trary Of what the bishop intended Every
curate began cult ating his beard, if only to
show his independence Of episcopal imper-
Thence.
HUMANITY AND CLEANLINESS.
The BARRIERS pols h o sign of humanity and
cleanliness, quite q hopeful os tho spire of
orthodoxy. To succeed Is barber requires
patience, courtesy and good temper as well as
skill. Sometimes, like . fisherman, the barber
will wait for hours without business Then,
when he vents to get bis dinner or is short Of
hands, there viii be q rush Of tonsorial candi-
dates, all Of them in hurry. It takes from
seven to ten shavss 10 make q dollar, accord
ing a. the charge Is ten or fifteen cents 1t is
no wonder, therefore, that the barber has to
be an economist, choose . growing or estab-
lishsd neig hborhood, mind he has enough
hands to help him, but not too many, and be
thoughtful a. to bis rent
Ono of the chief sources Of income in this
business used to be the curling and dyeing Of
hair But the hair Is now worn generally too
short TO need the curling irons, and there is a
growing idea that dyeing the hair is apt to
cause skin disease or brain trouble. A gen.
Heman in tho real estate business on Fulton
street is said to have lost his eyesight through
having his hair dyed. Certainly there have
been iRtiSputable cases in former times in
which cosmetics applied to the skin have
caused disease and at length modification
and desth
There is no greater mistake than to suppose
that the trade OF barber is one Of Incidence
and unemployment OF intelligence A bar
Der, like anybody else, may be stupid, but
shaving and hair cutting will not make him
so. BARRIERS have better opportunities than
most men for observing and remembering
faces. Their evidence has often turned the
scale ir criminal trials. It was barber ut
st. Louis the other day who put the identity
of the body found in the trunk with that Of
Mr.. Preller, whom Maxwell had murdered
for his money, beyond a possibility Of doubt.
Brooklyn Eagle