The Lebanon express. (Lebanon, Linn County, Or.) 1887-1898, 1889-03-08
sElsERa IN EUROPE.
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French barhers wrap the end OF /
towel over the fingers OF their left hand, /
ahd when It Is necessary TO touch the
taco at all Ii Il the towel which comes
into contact with IL and not the bar
Bers hand. The main point aboat their
work Is the extraordinary swiftness
ana aextArfty with which they shave.
In AisSfica man usually reeonciles
hSFsalf 70 be fifteen or twenty minutes
III the chair, and five minutes OF Il Is
spent III dodging hair tonies, bay rum.
brillianfine. face Lotions and powder.
The French use none of these things.
They lafher 3 mans face very slightly,
run It over with razor, sponge it OF,
ana then the man dries Il himself with
i towel and leaves the shop five or six
minutes after he has entered it. Very
many Frenchmen shave twice a day If
they are going out in the evening, and
II Is the regular custom to step into
BARRIERS on their way to dinner, and
get shaved after they have assumed
evening dress. There Is no pouatum
or cosmetic Of any sort used, SO that
the ~barbers smell'' Is agreeably lack
ing.
4 am quite aware that / am running
in To the face OF tradition IN commend
ing French BARRIERS. The tradition is
= false. That brilliant satirist and
master of grotesque iampooning. Mark
Twain. has built up a reputation for
the French barber which he will never
be able to shake of. as far as the be-
Iefs OF Americans are concerned.
But the man is mahgned, nevertheless,
as any old resident of Paris can testify
But Mark Twain's sarcasm on the
barber of England is well bestowed.
He has even understated the ease. A
distinguished American novelist whom
/ met in London told me that he was
glad that he had come TO England for
two reasons. In the first place he had
learned to battle every morning, and
in the second he had acquired the art
of shaving himself.
The irst of these, > he said. '.keepa
me free from colds in the head, and by
the second escape the horrors of the
barber shop, and particularly of the
British barber.
common thing to go TO a barber shop,
as all the tofFs are shaved by their
Wallets, and the men who initiate them
shave themselves. so as not to reveal
the fact that they have no personal
servants. The few BARRIERS that exist,
however, make up in crime for this
paucity OF number. They are brutal
TO a point never attained even by the
most gallus and showy Southern negre
toBsorial artist. The familiarity of 3
London barber is almost as bad as hi:
brutality. He pulls his customers
around. jerks. scrapes, saws and tor
lures them, with endless enthusiasm.
Ihave never been able to understand
why any man adopts the calling of Z
barber in Germany, for the pay is alb
surdly small. I don't remember tbs
exact figures, but know that it never
failed TO startle me when reckoning
day came. Ali over Germany they give
credit with degree OF truthfulnes.
which the foreigner considers beauti
full tribute to the general honesty o
human nature, until he learns of the
great strietness, power and almost in
defatigable work of the German police
4t Is impossible for a debtor TO gre
across the border, and hence the truth
fulness..
The first barber ever had in tn,
German empire was the picture o
Fritz Listz, the pianist, except that h,
was not gray. He charged abou
twenty cents a week for coming to m,
hotel and shaving me every morning
and it was two weeks before got owe
being abashed in his presence He hae
huge shock of blonde hair. which
was combed back from a noble fore
head and cut of square across the necl
after the fashion of Able Listz. and h,
invariably wore frock coat, buttonet
sef around his small waist A fiowe
hloomed in his buttonhole, and h,
ne with his lather all prepared in
water-tight box He usual,
cd an opersGc aria as he shave,
-, and it was a long time before
= could summon up sufficient courage /
interrupt him for the purpose of prac
ticing queer German upon him befor
breakfast. Blakely Hall.