The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1891-09-11
THE EARLY DAY BARBER.
The Customers, Shaving Outfits and
Prices Of Half a Century
Ago.
Some Of the Old Places In st. Louis
Which Will be Recalled by
Montanians. X


Expensive Cups, brightly LetterSd. A,
of Recent Date-A Common Cup
Was the Thing.
A gentleman Of so loquacious a reputs
tion as the barber should abound in NOR
tales reminiscent than any other, says tn
st. Louis Globe Democrat. Tho barber
however, is 3 curious parsonage. He is no
so much reminiscent as he 10 of to-day. II
can talk off hand OH politics, commerce
base ball and racing, and--always remsm
berthe weather, but carry him back
quarter or half 4 century and he is ver,
like other individuals. Matters Of to-da,
are a part of his atock in trade. He mus
be up in them, while the details Of histor,
he may forget to such al extent that he 10
calls them only after extensive Illumination
The searching of his memory however, il
interesting, aud will pay the curious. There
are in st. Louis q number of old barber.
and old shops. and their recital Of matters
relating to their old-tima business and OLD
time customers il somewhat absorbing. Ot
the old shops, there are but three which
can now be said to be in existence. Others
in which was recited a great many Of the
details of tho early history of Mis-
souri, and the west are remembered
only by the "old inhabitants" The
plRcea which have passed out of being are
moro numerous. Thsre was the shop I'M
der the old Missouri hotel, on Main and
Morgan streets, a location which would be
rs little thought of to-day as a hotel site as
Plum street and the Levee. There tho
constitution agreed upon. The shop ut
this place was owned by Capt. King, an old
steamboatlnan. Another old place was at
Kings hotel, on Second and Vine streets.
the shop in which was operated by Capt.
King, who had moved from the Missouri,
bcing succeeded at the latter place by Alex.
Smith. Still another shop WAS at the Vir-
ginia hotel, on Christy, Main and Second,
presided over by j. RI. Gerhard, and in
which ex-Congressman w. H. Stone shaved.
This was in 1916, and MIR. Gerhard is now
proprietor of the Planters house shop, to
which Mr.. Stone has transferred his cup.
The Hotel Barnum furnished patronage for
another old shop, run by Frank Robinson.
All of these places are now unknown save
to the people who lived then and to-day.
W The Oldest shop now is that under the
: Planters house, owned by Mr.. Gerhard.
Next in line comes what is known as Clay
morgan's, ON Pine, just west of Fourth
street, and next to that, Etteling's, in the
Lsclede building. OF Fourth and Olive
streets. The Planters house one was es-
stablishsd in 1S42, and the Claymorgan one
TON aars Ia{or Tho Etta1ipo chr,, rrow
out of the Claymorgan, being established
by Robert Wilkinson, who had dissolved
partnership with Claymorgan, and who en-
ployed George Etteling. the present owner,
As brennan. OF the BARRIERS, one of the
oldest is Proprietor Smith, of the present
, ploysd at journey work in the old Clavmor-
gan shop. There have been several changes
in the time of each of these places. Inc
Planters house shop was started
by man named Hall, who
was succeeded by Benjamin Hickman. The
latter had it for thirteen years, when he
was succeeded by the present proprietor,
MI. Gerhard, who has now had it but two
years short of a quarter of a century. The
Claynlorgan place, as stated, WAS started in
1852, though it is supposed by many to be
the Oldest shop in the city. Then came the
dissolution of the firm of Claymorgan d
Wilkinson, the senior of the firm then own
ing the shop until the time OF his death,
which occurred in 1883. lie was succeeded
by Joseph P. Roeser and N. b. Reynolds.
The former has been dead now three years,
the latter becoming proprietor. At the
Ettellng the only change has been from
Wilkinson, the proprietor, to Etteling, the
old frame shop and the erection Of a mag !
nihcent bank and office building.
In those old days men who have since be-
come prominent and wealthy were the chief
Patrons, but their shaving outfits seen to-
day do not begin to compare to the one
nsed by the Sl0,a-week clerk of to-day.
Expensive cups, brightly lettered, were then
unknown. The cup was common ware.
costing loo. the brush was 25c, and the
sponge In the neighborhood of SOC. A very
respectable outfit could be had at q dollar
Mt the outside. How different now! If YOU
want anything at all that you will not be
ashamed to have the barber pull down, you
must pay at least 81 for it, and SIS is not at
nll out of the way. From that you can 90
to whatever your fancy suggests and your
pocket-book allows. In the time of the
shops of the period Of the Planters house
the mug was an ordinary white ware cup,
~ Its ownership was designated sim
ply by a piece of white paper pasted
on the cup or on the receptacle in the rack.
II was not until about twenty-f five years ago
that the names were put on in anything
more lasting than paper. Then glass labels
were stuck on the white or china ware, and
among the ups of this period seen on the
shelves now are those of M. j. Steinbsrg,
General John W.. Iurr err. e.. H. Morgan,
John W. Kaufman, Judge J.. b. Valiant,
Governor p. o.. stanard, Judge w, g.,
Wagner, g.. Michaelis, plain. without letter
ing, John Il. Holmes, DIR. W. Nj. Carpenter,
Charles johnson, W. II. Stone, J.. j. How
ard, IL. G. upmeyer, Silvester H. Latin,
and H.. b. WhitteInore, the latter of whom
shaved III the Claymorgan shop the first
day it was opened. Since then the BARRIERS
stimate that the old shops have had at
least LOO sets of new customers.
Prices of shaving were also much lower
IN those days, and, as now, the shops were
graded according to the price, though the
second GLASS ones were not by any means
what the sccond-class ones were then. For
instance the PERSON who starts out now to
look for An old shop naturally goes to the
Levee. not knowing that the river man, the
traveller, the planter and everybody else
above tho scale OF n deck hand, came up
town to get a shave and haircut, and
Fourth street in those days was pretty well
up town. Thus one of the old-time shops
was owned by j. p. Flori, located at Cristy
lthen Green) and Third and Fourth streets,
1t was a five cent and Six and a quarter
shop, and yet Mr.. Flori en-
joyed u first-elass trade and died
leaving an estate of something like
$4,000. The price of shaving before tho
war was 10 cents and S cents, the former
first and the latter second GLASS. Hair cuts
we're rs cents where now they are 35 cents.
The only city in tho country where the
charge was up to the present scaIe waa Nav