The new North-west. [volume] (Deer Lodge, Mont.) 1869-1897, 1886-10-15
THE BARRIERS POLE.
A CRAFT WHICH REQUIRES SKILL,
COURTESY AND INTELLIGENCE.

The Barber as Practical Philanthro.
pist and Apostle of CIeanliness-None
But the Shaved Cam Woo the Fair.
Curling and Dyeing.
It used to be the fashion to laugh at bar
bers, because the BARRIERS shop was the center
Of the village gossip The barber heard every
hodys business and impaired it to everybody
else, or got the reputation of doing SO. For
my part, regard the barber as practical
philanthrepist and view his calling with re-
spect. When the head is feverish and aching
after 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
ber's 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.
UNSHAyED AND sLoVENLY.
None but the shaved can WOO the fair ac-
ceptably. unkempt and ragged hair and
short, bristly beard are 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 uncombed hair and a
weeks stubble on his chin. So is it, as Homer
said in the Had, that "deatb or life stands on
raZorS edge"
1t is the BARRIERS rather than natures touch
that makes the whole world kin. Shaving
was sometimes the emblem of mourning
among the ancients; at other times, the neg
ect OF it was sign of grief. Putarch tells
Us in his lives that when the Macedonians in
'vaded Greece it was found that the soldiers
long boards gave fine purchase to the enemy.
and hence, perhaps, the "clean shave" which
afterward became the fashion at Athens.
st. Paul Shaved his head at Cenchrea, for he
had VOW"
In oriental countries, as in China, the shaw
ng of the whole or part of the head is tho
junction of the barber; but in Christendom
jhe first BARRIERS were the monks. In recent
years the clergy-those of the Episcopal de-
nomination particularly-seemt to have adopt
I'd eastern rather than western ideas as to the
1ecorum of a beard in clergymen. Quite a
number of the English American and Cana
3ian Episcopal clergy wear Boards In Eng
and, up to thirty years ago, clergyman
With a big beard, unless he were missionary
IN foreign countries, would have been stared
at in the Streets and still more in the pulpit.
But, about that time, a late bishop of Roches-
;er, DR.. Wigram, very foolishly delivered a
Charge to his clergy against the wearing of
boards. The result, of course, was the con-
rary OF what the bishop intended Every
urate began cultivating his beard, if only to
show his independence of episcopal imper-
inence.
HUMANITY AND CLEANLINESS.
The barher's pole is sign OF humanity and
cleanliness, quite as hopeful as the spire of
orthodoxy. To succeed as barber requires
patience, courtesy and good temper as well as
skill. Sometimes, like a fisherman, the barber
will wait for hours without business. Then,
when he wants to get his dinner or is short of
hands, there will be rush of tonsorial candi-
lates, ali Of them in a hurry. 1t takes from
seven to ten shaves to make dollar, accord
ng as the charge is ten or fifteen cents. 1t is
10 wonder, therefore, that the barber has to
De an economist, choose a growing or estab-
ished neighborhood, mind he has enough
lands to help him, but not too many, and be
thoughtful as to his rent.
One of the chief sources of income in this
business used to be the curling and dveing of
hair. But the hair is now worn generally too
hort to need the curling irons, and there is
growing idea that dyeing the hair is apt to
,ause skin disease or brain trouble. A gen.
leman in the real estate business on Fulton
treet is said to have lost his eyesight through
laving his hair dyed. Certainly there have
,een indisputable cases in former times in
which cosmetics applied to the skin have
aused disease and at length modification
md death.
There is no greater mistake than to suppose
hat the trade of barber is one of Incidence
nd unemployment of intelligence A bar
'er, like anybody else, may be stupid, but
having and hair cutting will not make him
O. BARRIERS have better opportunities than
dost men for observing and remembering
aces Their evidence has often turned the
Gale in criminal trials. 1t was barber at
Il. Louis the other day who put the identity
I the body found in the trunk with that OF
1r. Preller, whom Maxwell had murdered
or his money, beyond possibility of doubt
Brooklyn Eagle.