The sun., 1897-12-05


Massachusetts, Ia to DO hold In Boston on Dec II
for the purpose of asking the State to take
the craft Of barborlnR under its par.
ticular care, to the ond that only good
and capable barbors may operate In the
Commonwealth. Tho intimation that noe
all BARRIERS are good and capable will be sur
prise to many. Perhaps more will grow out Of
this convention than the BARRIERS OF Union Is0
OF Boston, who called 1t, themselves conroua-
plato, and perhaps wrongs not chargeablo within
tho craft, but externally imposed upon 1t, viii
lud hero tho beginning of their correction.
lit 10 supposed that the convention will ash
TO have BARRIERS and barber shops licensed. The
plan is to get the Governor TO appoint a Board
Of Examiners. 1t is proposed that this board
shall have It's headquarters in Boston; that 70
shall havo a President, Secretary, and Treas.
urer; that IT shall be provided with common
seal, and that It shall bo invested with the
power to confer diplomas and administer oaths.
1t is also proposed that nobody shall be licensed
barber in Massachusetts who has not shaved
persons for the space of three years.
THE truth is that BARRIERS, not only in Massas
chusetts, but all over the country. need protoo-
tion, not 30 much against themselves but
again the general public-their customers. It II
not the people who shave. but the people who
got shaved, who need upon them the cor.
reoting oye OF Governor and of q board
itself has come to ask too much OF tho BARRIERS.
IL may be that 1t is desirable to have BARRIERS
regulated by law, but nothing is palmer than
that the time has come when IL is proper, de-
cent, and necessary that those who sit undoR
tho ministrations of BARRIERS should DO contom-
plated by tho law. and by pains and penalties
duly restrained.
"Barbers used to have to bleed customers and
to pull teeth. but those duties arc no longer
required In Htry,r trA
| sense. The duties that still devolvo upon
them arc in all conscience sufficiently oner-
GUS. They must converse fuently upon q
| great range Of subjects including the
| weather. An oxacting public insists that they
shall be finished essayists and lecturers
and 1t is at once an interesting and q painful
paradox that, however finished they may be,
they are still never finished. The understand
| ing that it is tho duty of BARRIERS to entertain
| customers 10 we'll illustrated in the case of an
| urbane and pleasurelovnR commercial trav-
| eller from Hartford who always used to say 70
the barber when he got into tho chair Talk to
| me all you can. please. and kindly wake mo IN
! for tho bay rum
| 1t Is time that barbers were protected from
well-meanng tyrants of this character, and
there is plenty else from which they have
long suffered and from which the authority
of kindly State might very decently
oxtricate them. There Is the familiar and
| certainly very splendid sign, 'Tonsorial
Parlor,' which public determined upon
its own esthetical qualification has forced
them to exhibit in largo gilt opalosquo
| lettering upon their plate-glass windows. 10
| would be a great saving Of expense, and would
convey the idea almost II not quito we'll II 10
were permitted to have the sign read Barber
Shop Then the nostrums and devices to
mako the beard grow and provide opu-
lcnce Of new hair for tho bald.headed-
the list Of these is positively enormous. and 10
seems shameful to require tho barber to recito
1t at length and with simulated enthusiasm
every time q customer sits down to be shaved.
In a busy shop the strain upon the operator IL
immense, and any fair-minded person will say
that 1t is altogether too much to shave a person
and to recite this list to him for Is cents
Let the eye of the State be directed upon
the customers of the BARRIERS, we say. Lot this
thoughtless and exacting body be regulated
and restrained. Let the Governor appoint
a commission to sit upon It. with n President,
| Secretary and Treasurer, seal. and tho power to
t grant diplomas and administer oaths. Hitherto
I the business in oaths seems to have been lodged
. exclusively with that body of the public which
r in contradistinction to shaving. gets itsel
shaved. Another wrong Of the BARRIERS has beer
that curious impulse OF human nature has
called upon them to supply occasion for profant
outbursts on the part of their customers
, Tho most popular barber in Port Jer
Wis is understood to owe his enviablt
distinction to the circumstance that with everl
shave he catches up pair of nippers. exclaims
! Wild hair! and plucks out o hair by tho root
, very painful process But why should Gus
, toners alone have the right to administer oaths
, and even be furnished studiously with the prov
ocation for themi Doubtless tho privilege
should be extended. and we look to the Gov
ernor of Massachusetts to SEQ and to perform
his plain duty.
: Every barber at present 10 obliged TO wal
his shop with shaving cups of u pattern to re
mind his customers of Tom-and-Jerry. VIII!
does not tyrannous public obliRe him to pro
Q vide Tom-and. jerry itself with every shave ant
l he dono with it . Certainly 1t is time for Gov
b. ernors all over tho country to besti
I themselves. The customers of the bar
bers are exacting altogether too much
o There is no reason why they should b
INDUCED in the luxury of vertigo. brough
y about to the terrifying accompaniment of
most extraordinary ratchet arrangement, as tn
Z barber turns them suddenly upside down, o
smeared with highly odorous briIlantine befor
:" they can think. 1t is altogether too much TO
the money. Let the Governors look to 1t. W
i say. Let there be seals and diplomas and ad
l. ministrations of Oaths-as many as are necessary
The BARRIERS should be protected. A shaw
should be palmer and a less luxurious thing.