The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1888-10-14
The Origin and History Of
TOnsOrial Art.
CONCEIVED IN BIBLE DAYS.
How It Happens to Inherit It's Blood
Thirsty uslities-Modern
Elegance.

cutting and shaving at the Tempt
Barber Shop.l
How seldom we compare the persona
privileges and bodily comforts enjoyed
by as in this generation, with those o
our ancestors, who lived in the earl,
part of the present century; not to say
anything of those who moved in NOR,
primitive times. Perhaps in nothing il
this more fully exemplified than in th'
luxury of barbering.
The gentleman who sits in an elegant
tonsorial saloon of the present period
and lounging in an easJ "lay-back'
chair, before a French plate mirror
muses. upon his business affairs while
the soft fingers of the modern manipu-
Iator pass agreeably over his well
moistened visage. and soft, hollow
ground razor unsteady removes the
stubble growth from his cheek and
chin, has perhaps no conception of the
humble origin and painful history of
the art of barberiug, which in its
pTGSSllb pcrlSCGLOuI SSpCCldl1y III oAcI-
| lea, fills such public want ia our adj
Vanced civilization. This, of course,
has no reference to a penny shave in
an English back street, during which
the old-fashioned razor made but five
strokes, two on each cheek and one en-
the chin, and the victim goes without
Washing; but we mean regular Is
cent shave in first class establishment
like the Temple Barber shop.
In very ancient times boards were al
lowed to grow untouched by the razor,
and what shaving was done was per-
formed upon the head; and the opera
ton, or rather the abstaining from its
performance, seems to have involved
some religious significance, as in the
case OF what was called the Nazarite
VOW. The shaving of the head, while
it was evidently the origin of the art of
barbering, seems to have been deemed
improper, at least for those holy
people who made this peculiar COW
enant. 6nlike the men of the present
day, the ancients were provided with a
very profuse growth of the capillary
covering, and to relieve the head from
its weight of hair, and also to provide
against the intense heat which afflicted
them in theit nomadic method of living
they considered it q luxury to shave
the head in whole or in part. This was
denied to the Nazerites and they vowed
to let the hair remain. Unjust be OBJ
vious to all rejecting persons, that if
the Naz3rites were thus forbidden to
shave their heads, had lived in our day,
they need not have considered their VOW
IN this regard to be any great sacrifice,
neither would it have been of very much
value; tor in short time the hair
would have left of its own accord, and
at the age of 35 or sooner in most in
stances we could not with the best opera
glasses, have told a Nazerite from a
Gentle in the ballet seats" of the Salt
Lake Theatre.
But the religious importance of this
vow, as shown by biblical reference, is
we'll worth our notice.
1t will be remembered that when an
angel appeared and promised son
named Samson to the wife of Manoah,
that the heavenly parsonage used these
head, for the child shall be Nazarite
seQuent strength of this son of promise,
the scripture says, departed from hit1
when his locks were shaven off by his
wife's barber while the giant lay asleep.
(see Judges XVI 1919 That was the
dearest shave or haircut ever inflicted,
at least the dearest in the record of
barberlng, - has reached the writer
of this ar~c.s ,. It even beats the
charges at the Palace and Palmer
House, with all the extras at Union re-
tail prices. They are as dross COM
pared with Delilah's charge for bar
bering her husband and by q hired
Philistine at that. No man could have
got such price; surely as they say
women can do more than men, but
Samson never went to her shop again."
1t seems however, that in apostolic
times the sentiment was changed in the
matter of letting the hair grow, for
Paul says doth not even nature
itself teach you that if man have
long hair it is shame unto him." (Cor.
chap. XII, v. Il
When the mother of the great phoph-
ct Samuel went into the Temple, and
entered into covenant with the Lord
in regard to the child before his birth,
part of the promise she made was
"And there shall no razor come upon
his head" His powerful career as a
prophet from childhood to old age is
matter of Biblical history and need
only be referred to to prove he was
favored of God, but what influence upon
his great life his perpetual growth of
hair produced, we are not able with
present information to determine.
The art Of barbering has found its
place in both poetry and prophecy. The
scriptures make figurative mention of
the razor and of shaving, as for ir-
stance Psalms Iii, v. 2)"Thy tongue DE-
viseth mischiefs: like a sharp razor
working deceitfully." Also in Isariah
(vii, V. 20) "In the same day shall the
Lord shave with q razor that is hired,
by them bsyond the river, by
the king of Assyria, the head and the
hair of the feet; and it shall consume
the beard" Then in Ezekiel, fifth chap
ter and first verse, the prophet is COM
as follows: 'And thou, Son of
man, take thee sharp knife, take thee
a parber's razor, and cause it to pass
upon thy head and upon thy beard"
This shows that BARRIERS went by their
present professional name at this early
period. 594 years Before Christ.
In what artistic or non-artistic man
ner the Gcddard's, the James the HeE-
nefers, the Squire's and the Diehi's ct
those days performed the several acts
required by their business, we are not
informed by holy writ. But judging
1f VI tx-t