Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1899-10-18
WOMAN BARBER TALKS.
THE TRADE LOOKED AT FROM A
FEMININE STANDPOINT.

I enjoy the work and nuke money,
but there is just one thing would
like to change" said Miss Amelia
Clay, the enc woman in Greater New
York who owns a barber shop where
only women are employed. II don't
like my sign.
"Why, do you know, I actually
catch myself looking the other wHy
when come to open up every mors-
ing or when returasug from lunch.
Yes, indeed, THAI sign, Lady BARRIERS
Only ruhs The fur the wrong way,
aud the worst of it is that time doesn't
appear to ease my pain. Why don't
L change it? I don't change it Fer
the very good reason that ! woNM lose
my customers if did, and I object to
it on account of shat word lady. 1t
has such q cheap look and sound
when coupled with barber shop.
But see you will never understand
until I go back to the besiaHi+ASS and
explain.
when 1 first epeAed this shop five
years ago ms sign read like that
OF any other barber, although I
then, as now, employed only women.
Wsll, 1 didn't get many customers,
and things began to look pretty blue
for me, when one tlsS the lawyer
whom I had consulted about my busi-
ness from Hne to time came in to
get shave and hair cut. He inquired
about my methods, and when I tod
him that employed only womeA assjs-
tants he was surprised, and ASKED
why I didn't state the sact iii my sign.
He insisted thst il would prove an
attraction, and said in the presence
OF my tive sssistants-I had only two
then, T employ twenty-five now
<You ladies mustn't hide your light
under bushel. Advertise, Advertise
yourselves as lady barbeea md I'll
guarantee that in t@o months you'll
have more than you can do.
''Thep he went out, and I sat down
to wait for another customer and te
think over his suggestion, Al re-
suit had 3 new sign iminted, and it
read: Women BARRIERS Only EN-
ployed.' Instoad of my customers
increasing, there was decided falling
of, and hear the end OF the secoAd
week, when I was almost is despair,
an old sea captaia made his appear
ance in the she.A He looked about
him suspicseasly, eyed me and my one
assistaNt--the other had been sus.
Readed until better times-and aHally
taking his seat, instructed me to
shave him and de il quick. I obeyed
his orders. Sou may be sure, for 1
was net run down from overwork in
those days, and on that particular daf
he was our first and only customer.
After the shave he examined himself
in the mirror, thep he walked about
the shop and Inspected things pretty
much as l imagine he would inspect
bis own ship. Then he turned te ne
and, after q good, long stare, he de-
mapded:
What made ynN hang that sign
out?'
81 explained my reason as best I
! could. You see, customers were SO
scarce in those days that 1 was glad te
overlook even little rudeness For the
pleasure of having them at ell. Well,
the old fellow listeaed to me. Then
he fell to whi:tiing and staring, with
his hands deep down in his pockets.
Finally, he said:
sd never take you for q bloom
ing fool from the looks of YOU. DON II
you know that a man doesa't like a
woman who calls herself q woman?
Why don't you call yourself lady?
You'd never caught me comm in here
for shave if the lady who runs the
boardin' honse where I stop hsdn't t
told me you was lady and kept a
decent place. You can take my WORD
for it, and change that sign andyau'il
draw. Call yourself a lady and do
honest, clean work,
''Then he marched out, and after a
good cry wo held another cousulta-
tion and decided to change the sign
to read MS you now see it. 1t acted
almost like miracle, and before the
end of the month was really at my
wits end about how to attend to eui
customers. You see didn't wart to
get in extra help if our prosperity was
only to be temporary, but I soon de-
cided to make The experiment, and
since then I have been forced to en-
large the establishment to it's present
proportions, and we are always busy.
'I learned the business from my
uncle, with whom I went to live at
the death of my parents when I
was about l2 years old. He was
barber, and 1 fell into the habit of
helping him about the shop between
hours. Then took regular work as
cashier and bookkeeper, and one
day during the busy season 1 shaved
man who was in hurry when there
was no one else at leisure. That was
my first attempt to use q razor, and
/ think now it was the luckiest thing
that ever happened to me, for when I
finished that man there was another
waiting and then another, until L had
shaved five, and all of them insisted
on having me; SO, while 1 attended
to the books it became known that I
could shave when called Oh, and I
had a number of regular customers,
which enabled my uncle to give me
some little salary besides my board
and clothes.
Il had good opportunity OF learn
ing the business, and I am glad to say
I took advantage OF it, and when my
uncle died / was enabled to manage
his shop for nearly two years. Then
his wife decided that she was able to
take it in hand, so I gave up and came
here and opened the shop for myself.
''l don't know that I have any Gus.
toms or methods different from INV