Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-10-20
THE BARBER OF PARIS
Figaro's Glory and Importance Has
Faded in These Modern Days.
SOME FAMOUS ARTISTS In HAIR.
Dressing the Locks Of Actresses on Monthly
Contracts.
FALSE TREsSES GOING OUT OF FASHION

CORRESPONDENCE OF THE DISPATCH!
PARIS, October 5.-This winter yery
little false hair will be worn, curling iron
are also to be abolished and it will be con-
sidered very bad taste to change the natural
color OF ones tresses. Nor will "Coiffeur
de Ville," as hairdressers are called who
60 to private houses, be called in as often as
they used to be. Rich people are attending
more and more to their own requirements,
Wallets are dressing their masters hair, and
the maids will look after my lady's tresses.
Of course, Figaro will be asked to come and
powder the servants in livery, but there will
be no more such nonsense as four hours de-
voted to the toilette as was the case with
Talleyrand. The women are doing up their
hair very simply, and in fact dressing it
solidly in way to allow of riding, driving
and dancing, without having it in the eyes
or hanging down the neck in loose frizzes.
Paris BARRIERS are not what they used to
be, nor are the hairdressers either. We no
longer linger in a barber's shop to hear the
news, the gossip of the day, or the latest
can-cans of the boulevard. ETerybodyi is in
too much OF hurry to exchange words with
fellow who shaves you under the skin
without chloroform, and insists on selling a
few bottles of the stuff which adorns their
toilet tables.
A PRETENTIoUs BARBER.
Still Paris coitfeurs are a pretentious lot
of males who mainly come from the southern
districts of France. One of them, over in
the Rue du Bac, is pretentious, "par excel
lence," and will do no business with any
person except he is of the nobility. This
imbecile imagines himself born sculptor,
and the last time I saw him he showed me,
on plate, pigs snout in wax, which he
said was boar's head. He had modelled it
with squint eyes, and a mouth slit toward
nose; the foolish man actually tried 10 get
it in the French Arts Department of the
Exposition.
Long ago BARRIERS and hairdressers were
compelled to hang a white metal basin at
their doors to distinguish them from sur
geons, who sheltered themselves behind a
copper basin. These are still used for sign
purposes; they are of oval shape and a small
piece is chipped out at one end, to show that
the basin would fit under the chin, if neces-
sary. But there are no such basins inside
Paris BARRIERS shops. A gentleman who
goes into one of them TO be shaved must
wash the lather off his own face when Figaro
has finished hacking him. Then, if he
wants his hair dressed, he sits down again
In the very uncomfortable chair and the
fellow recommences. There are some hair
dressers who are not BARRIERS, but all BARRIERS
are hairdressers, and many of them are also
wlgmakers. There is one man up by the
College OF France who has an oil painting
outside his premises which represents Alb
salon hanging by his hair to q large tree
while his horse is gallopine away in the
distance; and below, the following words
are written: "If he had worn one of our
wigs, this misfortune would not have hap
pened him." A barber of my neighborhood
has the sign which reads: "Shaving done
here to-day for money, and tomorrow for
nothing"
sHAvER's STUDIO.
We all knew Galabert, Of the Rue Basse
de Rempart. He would cut hair with an
uncommonly small pair of scissors, and
looked on curling tongs as an abominable
heresy. He called his BARRIERS ''clerks,"
and used to tell us that we must net sup
pose ourselves when in his shop in place
similar to that Of any OF his fellow-trades-
men. "You are in studio" he would say,
as he fingered about our craniums. He
grew rich, retired, and is now growing vines
in the Medoc country.
Old man baudu, nalruresser, VINO ndu
been in the business for more than 80 years,
was, four or five days ago, crossing the stage
of the Cluny Theater, where he had gone to
give some instructions about the wigs that
his men are making for the next niece, when
he fell through an open trap, br k his back
NOT at all difficult, for he was over 80
and when picked up, exclaimed:
SIT is finished. Go and tell my son to
come here, and take these things back to
the atelier."
His first master was the famous Giovanni,
and he commenced his apprenticeship in
1915. Recognizing the young fellows ca
pacity, Giovanni sent him to dress the hair
Of the celebrated actors and actresses of that
epoch, and thus he came to know Talma,
Potter, Frederic Lemaitre and Mile. Mars,
and he was ways full of anecdotes about
the illustrious heads which he had put in
curl papers. He possessed the finest col
lection of wigs in all Paris, and he leaves no
fortune whatever.
CONTRACTS WITH THEATERs.
One coifeur-that is to say, one house