The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-01-11
THE BARRIERS COLLEGE.
The Old-Fashioned "Tonsorial Artist
 Condemns It's Graduates.

opinions of his own, but simply reflects those of the customer with whom for the time being he talks about the weather or politics. He agrees with ev- cry man. Say that politics is rotten to the core, and the barber will give ex- ampleS without number to support you. Say that, after all, the people that say the worst things about politicians know the least, and that things are not so bad as they are painted, and you will be met with another set of examples. The same way about the weather. It will be warmer tomorrow; 1t will be colder tomorrow; 1t looks like rain it won't rain for week-all are agreed to. Some people have gone so far as to say that the barber has no private life; that his mind is g. blank once away from the chair
 Let anyone who holds this doctrine ask the man who is shaving or sham pooing him with quickness and care and at the same time keeping up an un- equalled flow of pleasant conversation whether he has ever heard of the ''col- 1ege barber In a moment the ready made conversation will cease, and you will get a choice series of lurid adjec- tives directed at this same parsonage. "The college barber is running the trade;" 1the college barber should be boycotted," and other sentences will fol- low each other with lightning rapidity, and the barber will stand forth for the first time as man with opinions of his own.
 The "college barber" who has brought upon himself the odium of the great mass of journeymen barbers, is not a graduate of a university who has taken to the gentle use of father and razor as a means of support, nor is he barber who makes a speciality of college men. No more is he poor student who makes his way through college by shaw ing his more fortunate classmates. He is simply graduate of a "barbers' col lege," a little known institution, which was to be seen about six months ago in this city, at No. 923 Arch street, and which was known as the Philadelphia Barber college, but which has since failed and disappeared. New York has secured the one which used to flourish fere, and the institution is still pouring out graduates in shaving and haircut ting upon an unkempt world.
 For $25 in eight weeks the barbers college will turn an inexperienced lad, wholly lacking in conversational pow CTS into first rate barber, skilled in shaving, plain hair-cutitng and sham poOing, and with a first class flow of talk on subjects of the day-that is, the prospectus of such a college alleges that the above will be true. The bar Der himself, however, will tell you that these institutions have in late years all most ruined the trade, the lucrative travelling salesman's custom in particu- lar, and have increased the use of safe ty razors by a percentage on a conser- vative estimate, of 200 per cent.
 What can anyone learn about the trade in eight weeks?" said one indg- nant barber. They can scrape, and that's all. It's driving people to safe ties and barbers to drink. It has hurt us most of all with drummers. The American travelling salesman used to be the best customer we had. He always kept natty He used to get shaved twice day, and always tipped well. Now what has happened? The drum mer has met with these graduates from barbers' college, has got 'scraped' in stead of being shaved, and now is SC afraid Of the shops that he carries his razor with him. It is safe to say that the travelling trade, as we call it, isn't pne-half as good as it used to be. Make barber In eight weeks! Why, I've been at it seven years and don't know the business yet.'
 Although the barbers' college is gone, foy ioc pIiIa Q do1pI1ia ic concerned thia ds how the course was run, according to barber who was graduated from it..
 First two weeks, stropping razors; {; hOning razors; method of holding the game; practice in moving heads to prop CT positions for shaving and hair cut ting; lathering.
 Third and fourth weeks, review; use of scissors in clipping the back hair; use of hot and cold water towels on shaved faces; use of bay rum hair re- storer and sea foam, including sham pooing; use of towel as a fam
 Fifth and sixth weeks, shaving begun on sshard faces,' the customers Gramps) being furnished by the college; down motions first week, then up and down; complete hair-cutting.
 Seventh and eighth weeks, shaving on all kinds of faces with practice in the art of suiting the razor to the face; hair-cutting, with thinning of the hair; mustache and beard trimming.
 Now, while the course does not in- clude the niceties of the trade, such as instruction in refined topics of converse tion, lectures on the use and the abuse of the weather" by slight stretch of the imagination a graduate course with these details of the profession intro- duced, can be pictured. No doubt the treatment of the pognpadour and the use of tapers in hair cutting were sub- jects for research work. It would real ly seem that if any one was graduated from such course, he could be safely intrusted with the shears or the razor But such, according to most barbers has not been the case and to these men is due the reaction from the golden har- vests of the "good old days" when Sunday opening and travelling salesman custom united to make the barber rich
 The contention of the most level-head ed of the profession seems to be that the old method of apprenticeship, with it's practice on the face of the "boss" ol upon an occasional hard face, should be continued with, perhaps, the impor-