Evening star., 1898-03-05

written Tor In" Evening Star.
You've probably observed that high
class. modern barber shops have of late
years abandoned the practice OF decorating
the walls with shelves holding uniformly
and orIat-ly stamped individual shaving
cups bearing customers nar,es," said a
Washington boss barber. "a few fairly
good Washington barber shops still cling
TO that old-time custom, but the thing is
out of date Several Co uses contributed to
the giving up of the individual cup idea.
In the first place, the OF today is 4
scod deal more skeptical in his view of all
TIE affairs of life than was the average
man when the individual cup notion came
into general use, that 1t is not easy to
convince a customer rowadays that an
individual shaving cup left on the shelf of
a barber shop is kept 3y the BARRIERS invio-
late III all of its purity and oneness of pur-
pose I'll bet a lot of fellows get a hack
at those cups besides the ne1 whose names
are printed on them. good many occa-
sional customers in barber shops remark
in establishments where the Individual
cups are still ranged along the shelves, al
Though there has never. to my knowledge,
been any foundation for such a charge
Another reason why the individual cup and
brush scheme has practically passed is that
men nowadays don't care to have their
gflded or red-lettered names staring bar
ber-shop customers in the face from the
cup shelves. Looks to me like the fellow
with on of those private cups is trying to
advertise himself as being cleaner than the
rest of u.s. is a remark I've often heard.
For this reason, even in the oId-fashioned
shops VIII customers of long standing
still stick TO their cherished individual
cups. they have. in many cases, replaced
the cups with their names stamped on
them with cups bearing no other SCROLL de-
vice or l-send but simple number These
customers are known Oh the boss BARRIERS
hfn / tF,AYr
show up for their shaves they get their
numbered cups.
Il don't suppose 1 ought to own up to
It, concluded the boss barber, but the
self-shaving habit has been spreading
mighty swiftly in this town for a number
OF years past"
x y =
A rather mysterious musical artist who
set a good many mLsicaIly inclined Wash
figton people TO wondering last summer
has lately reappeared in the northwest
section of the city. This man is q remark
ably good player of the viola. Rather late
IN the evenings OF last summer, when
Washington residents living in the north
west quarter had about finished their cool
IL g-off sittinss Oh verandas and front steps
ard were about ready to retire, they were
all at once quieted in their chatter and
then thrilled and inspired by very beauti-
full music. proceeding from an individual
source-music now like that produced from
a violin by skilled player and again like
the muted notes of a cello. The music was
Of a high grade-fine old German iieder
songs. bits from the more melodious Of the
nGcturnes. arias from some of the great
operas. all rendered with fine musical f..,,-
lag and precision. At the conclusion of
The Sc rather peculiar serenades the PLAYER
never appearing in view of the listener;
for oacksheesh, the men on the steps and
Nerandds would seek the source of the mu-
sic They found. standing in the heavy
SHADOW cast by tree or the wall of
tuilding. a well-dressed man. good looking
ana under thirty, picking out chords with
ms hnsers On the strings of his instrument
When the investigators handed him silver
the man stretched out his hand for it,
snliltngiy. but with no word of thanks
When the investigators attempted to pump
me strange musician. with the idea of find
ing oIt how an artist SO splendidly trained
happened to playing in the streets for coin
the man simply pointed to his mouth with
deprecdtory gesture, as if to indicate
that he was mute. Then he would walk
away Last week some ladies living IN
upper 1Ith street heard this music of a
yioia-they had often spoken of IT among
themselves since hearing it last summer
and when the young man of the house
whom they sent to investigate returned he
loid tnem mat the musician was the viola
player of last summer. as prosperous-Iook-
1g. mysterious and quite as silent as ever
whether the man is really mute or not
cannot, OF course, be ascertained. but II is
certain that he is a master of the viola I'm
To- the bridge of the instrument
\
"One thing that has struck me as re.
markable about this town-and there are
several others-is that young women here
have no fear whatever in going about the
streets after nightfall," said a Chicago
man visiting in Washington. That's some
thing that you don't see in any other big
city in this country that I've ever been in
and / believe I've been in them all. l am
stopping quite distance uptown with
friends and the streets are rot particu-
larry Well lighted thereabouts, yet every
night. as late as 10 or IL o'clock, l see