Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1895-05-06
THE MOST wOflDERFUL THING.
A Man Who Had New Experience In a
Faroff Country.


A New Yorker who recently returned
to the city after a foreign tour says that
he enjoyed one experience while abroad
the like of which he never before heard
Of During my life in New Yorl., for
40 years, he said, 81 have met plent :
of nice people and seen more acts Of
courtesy and deeds Of kindness than
would fill a book. I have known of a
slzinfint giving money to the needy, and
Of q passenger in an elevated car resign
ing his seat to a woman, and OF q Wall
street man, with Christian symptoms,
and of smoker handing his lighted cigar
right end foremost to a stranger who
asked light, and Of a human being
who always had a match when anybody
needed one, and Of q woman who would
dote on the beauty of another without
jealousy, and Of 81 entertainer who
would cut for his guest a better piece of
the pOrterhouse steak than he kept for
himself, and even of a curmudgeon who
would upon occasion give proof that
there was a streak Of virtue in him. All
such things one can safely expect at
times in the world
but, though I have been a customer
at BARRIERS shops in New York for 20
years, [ never saw and never heard of a
case in which a man, who, when it came
his turn to get the chair for shave, and
when the barber cried Next would re
sign his place to any other man in wait
ing He will stick up for his rights there
against the world. 7 have seen many a
quarrel, and two or three fights, between
men waiting to get shaved, when there
was a crowd, as to which one came in
first. I was angry myself one day when
fellow who had been getting his boots
BACKED in the rear of the barber shop,
and whom [ had not seen, stepped up to
a chair which I was about to take and
said he had come in before me- No mat
ter if another man is in a hurry, or if
he must catch train, or if his wife is
anxious about him because he is too late
for dinner, you won't give up your turn
in the BARRIERS chair on his account
There is one Of his rights man will
stand up for, and you can see it at the
BARRIERS.
''When I went abroad, I found the
same thing in England and France In
London once L asked barber if he could
not put me ahead, and he answered
sharply that he would not do it for the
Bank of England. The Parisians are
polite everywhere except i'll the BARRIERS
shop when their turn comes, and you
would have to fight duel if you asked
one Of them to let you get shaved before
him because your soup was growing
cold.
''It was in my programme, after see
no oil
trip through the highlands of Scotland |
[ saw plenty of historic spots as [ made |
my way far up on the Grampian hills, |
where the frugal SWANS feed their focks, |
and farther yet, where the fishermen
breast the waves, but I would give them
al away for an experience / had when I
reached an ancient town beyond the
Grampians one Saturday afternoon. AT |
the inn I asked for barber, as I wanted
to go to church the next day and must |
be shaved. When I got to the barber's
place, his only chair was filled, and
four or five customers were waiting their
turn. In a few moments the chair was
emptied, and I expected that one of the
men would spring into it. Not a man
moved. The barber looked at me, smiled
md told me he was ready for me- [ said
20 him in low voice that several others
lad been there before me- L dinna mind
hat he replied. You're a stranger up
lere, maybe an American, and the
stranger always comes first wi US. I
glanced at the other men as if to apollo
yize or to secure their assent Aye, said
me of them, the stranger must always
)e first here. We can wait. | took the
hair with thanks, and the price of
shave was twopence.
fThe seven wonders of the world, all
out together, and with the addition
# Cleopatra s needle in Central park,
would not have impressed me as deeply
IS L was impressed by this romantic in
ldent, never before paralleled in my
experience. [ have travelled from Boston
o Chicago, from Cripple Creek to New
Orleans, without ever hearing of thing
f the kind.
81 do not suppose that many Ameri
ans possess sufficient brain power to be-
ieve in the literal truth of this incident,
ct, for all that, it is true as the Gram
ian hills of the highlands of Scotland,
where it occurred. L have told the story
0 two Or three Scotchmen since came
ack to New York, but they did not
hink there was anything curious or SEN
ational about it. New York Sun.
Don't Use Big Words.
In promulgating your esoteric cogita-