The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-04-29
The sIo.t wonaerfuI ThlnE.

"A New Yorker who recently returned 10
the city after a foreign tour says that
ne enjoyed one experience while abroad
the IKE OF which ne never before heard
Of, says the New York sun. During my
life IN New York, for forty years, he
said, Il have met plenty Of nice people
and seen more acts Of courtesy and deeds
OF kindness than would MI a book. have
known OF a skinfiint giving money 10 the
needy, and OF a passenger in an elevated
car resigHing his seat 70 woman. and OF
Wall street man with Christian symp-
toms. and of a smoker handing his nghred
cigar right end foremost to a stranger
VINO asked for a light, and OF human
being who always had match when any
body needed one. and OF a woman who
would dOte on the beauty OF another with
out jealousy. and of an entertainer VINO
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 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 twenty
years. / never saw and never heard Of
a case in which man who, when II came
his turn TO get the chair fer a 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 inert
against the world. have seen many
quarrel, and two or three fights, between
men waiting TO get shaved, when there
was n crowd as to which one came In first.
/ was angry myself one day when fellow
who had been getting his boots blacked IN
the rear of the barber shop, and whom l
had not seen, stepped up to a chair which
l was about TO take, and said he had come
in before me. No matter IL another man Is
in hurry. or if he must catch a train, or
II 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 &C
count There is one of his rights man
win stand up for and you can see 1t at the
BARRIERS.
thing in England and France In London
once l asked a. barber If he could not put
me ahead and he answered sharply that
he would not do 1t for the Bank of Eng
land. The Parisians are polite everywhere
except in the barber 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.
1T was in my programme. after see
ing the French and English, to take a trip
through the highlands OF Scotland. ] saw
plenty of historic spots as l made my
way far up on the Grampian Hills, where
the frugal SWANS feed their hocks, and
further yet, where the fishermen breast
the waves; but / would give them all
away for an experience / had when
reached an ancient town beyond the
Grampians one Saturday afternoon. At
the inn | asked for a barber, as / Wante
to go to church the next day, and must
be shaved. When l got to the BARRIERS
place his only chair was filled, and four
OF I'VE CuSlOHltrS were Wellin8 luclE luIH.
In few moments the chair was emptied,
and l expected that one of the men would
spring into il. Not man moved The
barber looked at me, smiled, and told me
he was ready for me, l said to him in
low voice that several others had been
there before me. L dinna mind that he
replied. You're stranger up here, may
be an American, and the stranger always
comes first wi us I glanced at the other
men as if to apologize or to secure their
assent. Aye said one of them, the
stranger must always be first here; we
can wait / took the chair with thanks,
and the price of a shave was twopence.
THE seven wonders of the world, all
put together and with the addition of
Cleopatra's Needle in the Central Park,
would not have impressed me as deeply
as | was impressed by this romantic Incl
dent, never before parallel in my expert
ence. l have travelled from Boston to
Chicago, from Cripple Creek to New Or
leans, without ever hearing of thing of
the kind.
Il do not suppose that many Americans
possess sufficient brain power to believe
in the literal truth of this incident; yet
for all that, 1t is true as the Grampian
Hills of the highlands of Scotland, where
II occurred. / have told the story to two
or three Scotchmen since l came back to
New York, but they did not think there
was anything curious or sensational
about It,