Waterbury evening Democrat., 1891-07-13
Copyright 1891. by The United Press.l

of the four Grand Masters of the Court" as they are called, one always attends the Czar, when His Majesty is under the bar ber's care. Not that any doubt is felt as to the fidelity of the tonsorial artist. The family of Guelabovsh have been barbers to the Imperial house of Romanoff from the time of the Czar Paul. The first of the name, Michael, was employed when @ youth in the palace at St. Petersburg, and one of his occasional duties was to shave the Emperor. The nobles who conspired the death of Paul offered the young barber 8 reward that must have seemed dazzling to him if he would cut the Emperor's throat. Michael pretended to agree, but took the first opportunity to inform the Imperial Chamberlain, Count TroubetSkoi. The latter, in vain, warned the weak
 minded Czar of the conspiracy against his
 life; and Paul, history tells, was murdered in his bed-chamber by the nobles who had plotted to destroy him. When Alexander I. came to the throne he was reminded by Count Troubetskoi, of the fidelity of young Michael and in recognition of his devotion l to the Imperial family, Alexander, by a special decree, appointed Michael Guela- bovski and his descendants to be barbers | to the Czar and his household. Alexander | was in the habit of being shaved, and | during his reign of @ quarter of cen- ! tury he never hesitated to entrust the
 task to Michael, whose grandson now
 holds the place by right of descent. As l before stated, the office is a good deal of a l sinecure with the present Czar, so far as | shaving is concerned. It is the duty of | the imperial barber to attend his august
 master every morning, immediately after | the Czar has risen and performed his ab- l lutions, for the purpose of dressing his l hair and beard. This is done in the pres- | ence of one of the grand-masters of the | court. To the outside world the Michael
 Guelabovsh of the present day is sphinx. l He has never been known to reveal the
 secrets of the Romanoff toilet, or whether
 he talks to His Majesty, or is occasion 1 ally honored with 8 remark from the lips
 whose utterances are to Russia like the
 laws of the Medes and Persians. It is safe | to presume, however, that Michael culti-
 yates the virtue of silence in the imperial
 presence, as well as out of it, and that he
 never asks the Czar whether he wants
 shampoo. or would like a little cosmetic on his muStache. Michael goes wherever the
 Czar travels. and it is through the occas-
 ional visits of the Russian Autocrat to his father-in-law at Copenhagen, that the bar | ber's personality is known to the world
 there being much less ceremony and
 secrecy in the Danish palace than at St. Petersburg.
 The two former Kaisers of the German l Empire both wore full boards. In Prussia
 the barber has never been an official per- | sonage, the selection being entrusted to
 the Marshal of the House, at present the
 Baron von Lyncker. The aged Kaiser
 William had a constant and faithful per-
 sonal attendant in Ludwig Kanitz, the
 son of Brandenburg peasant, who from performing ordinary menial duties in the
 palace grew to be the confidential servant
 of the King and Emperor. Kanitz was in-
 separable from his master in war and
 peace, and he could undoubtedly have
 given memoirs to the world as interesting
 in some respects as those of Bismarck. The
 prolongation of the Kaiser's life to great
 age was no doubt due largely to the faith
 ful ministrations of this humble person.
 age, who never shared in the honors or
 fame that crowned others less intimately
 associated with his master. Kanitz did
 not long survive the Emperor. He was
 dismissed on pension sufficient to SUD-
 port him in comfort, but he soon died and
 was buried in the churchyard of his native
 village in Brandenburg.
 It is said that the present Kaiser is
 changeable as to barbers, to whom he , gives moro employment than his prede-
 cessors in the empire. At present, strange ly enough, he is being shaved by an Asa
 tian, man whose name is not known out side the court, but who was for some time
 employed in one of the leading barber shops of Berlin. There the Alsatian at l tracted the attention of the Count Stol- berg, who recommended him to the Mar. , shal of the House. As he has attended tc 7 the Kaiser for three months he is supposed
 to give satisfaction. It is said, however that he has had at least four predecessors who have been relegated to menial service in the palace. The Kaiser has an extreme ly tender skin, and as he insists on giving t audience and orders while being shaved } it takes clever artist to escape drawing 7 some of the Hohenzollern blood. This k
 believed to have been the trouble with the ! barbers who lost power.
 The Austrian court does everything ! magnidcently, and the toilet of the Elm peror is presided over by the Chevalier d. Hacker, descendant of the noble Genera b ! who led the attack on the Turkish garrison a of Pesth in 1886, and whose posterity hal
 figured honorably in nearly every great n war in which Austria has since been en . gagged. Even the barber, term by whicl
 he is never known, is a nobleman, th , Count du Faucon having been raised t. s that title in order to qualify him for hi l, l duties at the palace; for no plebian cal t lay hands on the Austrian Emperor. Tn d Count du Faucon is not native of Austria |, but a Saxon by birth. He was trained b, e the former imperial artist, who was also r man of title, and he is said to be one O. ? of the most expert of his trade in tht world. He is, of course, of plebian origin
 He is something of doctor, as well as s hair trimmer, and the Kaiser is said t e spend many an hour under the soothin, r influence of his manipulations. Since tn 1T death of Prince Rudolph Francis-Josepl a has been peculiarly subject to headache and similar ailments, and his barber's mir V istrations are more effective than a phy s sician's in driving away the pains tha B oppress him. The Count du Faucon ha e apartments in the palaces, both at Vienn y and Buda, and is treated as prominen y although not a leading court official. A e Francis-Joseph wears full beard, there IT very little use for the razor.
 The royal barber in Spain Is not ennobleG
 and for several years his place has been
 sinecure. It is, however, one of the mos a ancient offices in the kingdom, going bac e beyond the days of Ferdinand and Isabell, l. It has been held, for several generations d | at least, by the Erenas family, of Madrit t. It is the custom of Spanish sovereigns t a ! hastoU soma order on tha royal harher III