The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1895-03-09
IT'S CUT AND SLASH
BARRIERS IN THE MIDST OF A CRUEL
RATE WAR.

Hair Cutting is Now Down to Five Cents
| and Shaving the Same--Free Tonsorial
! Work Predicted Before the End is
| Reached--Most of the shops Will he
Drawn into the fiEht--The School Boy
Trade Served to Bring the Racket
about--What Barber Has to Say
About the Fight.
The BARRIERS of the city are excited.
There is a fight on among them and il
is hard to say what the end Will be.
1t need not surprise anybody If he is
offered to have his hair cut for moth
ing one of these fine mornings. Peace
and harmony prevailed among the bar
bers of Wichita until few months ago
when q banner was thrown out TO the
breeze before an east Douglas avenue
shop announcing the fact that shaving
had been reduced to cents and nair
cutting to Il cents. The other BARRIERS
paid no attention TO it thinking the fell
low would freeze out i'll week or two
and leave a business wreck behind him
as warning 10 all men who desired to
cut down the income Of labor. School
boys got two bits from their fond parent
to have their hair cut. They went to
this mans shop. got their hair Shingled
for IL cents and had a nickle left TO
buy a top and another nickle TO invest
in marbles. 1t was not long till all the
school boys in town got onto this
scheme and the result was that the
"fiVe-cent barber" as he was called, be-
gan to put in extra chairs and get
rich. Others came down 10 fifteen
cents for hair cutting and the FIVE cent
barber dropped down to ten cents. This
was cutting prices pretty low but the
barber below him thought that he
would go him five cents better and the
result was yesterday that the Shaggiest
headed man in town could get his hair
removed for five cent piece. 1t Is
fight with raZors. cutting and slash
ing. and il is hard to tell what the out
come will be. The standard BARRIERS
are busy trying to make the people be
lieve that no barber can cut hair for
five cents. but il is a hard matter to
convince a boy that he ought TO give
twenty-five cents for cutting his hair
when he can have it done a little farther
down the street and have twenty cents
left for spending money.
A reporter for the Eagle called upon
a prominent barber last evening with
reference to the cut in rates for shaw
ing and hair cutting, and he said: 1T
is my opinion that this foolish cutting
in prices will demoraliZe the barbering
business in Wichita for at least a
month. / think it will be a fight to
finish and that eventually all the bar
bers in town will be compelled to take
a hand in it Some of the boys will go
broke for no barber can afford to shave
for five cents in the west or cut hair
for less than twenty-five cents. People
think that BARRIERS can afford TO cut
boys hair for less than that but they
are mistaken. Very few outside of the
business know it costs a barber more
time TO cut a boys hair than it does a
mans. The reason for this is that
man win keep still while he is in the
chair but a boy will not. and hence the
task of cutting his hair is harder"
"Will all the barber shops take
hand in the cutting of prices ?"
oh no. There are three or four
shops in the city who will not be in
the least effected. They have regu
lar line of customers-What you may
the usual rates and will not be shaved
or have their hair cut below the legiti-
mate price for anything. The middle
class of BARRIERS are the ones that will
be effected. l candidly think that the
fight will be bitter one. There are
too many BARRIERS in town, times are
hard and sooner than remain idle they
will cut prices too. They will do this
for the purpose of freezing out the
quack BARRIERS if for nothing else, and
when that is done the regular price for
hair cutting and shaving win be put
back in again.