The Appeal. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. ;) 1889-19??, 1899-04-15

Throat Cutting Importance OF
Raxor-WielIers in China.
. Herr Haby, the barber whose method
tof dressing the fnustache was adopted
some years ago by William, the present
German Emperor, to the BARRIERS enrich
ment because so many wish to initiate
the monarch, and the latters great de-
light. IS by no means the only man of
the razor and the comb who has won a
fortune through pleasing the tonsorial
taste Of a great parsonage. .
Perhaps the most extraordinary way
OF winning wealth ever adopted by a.
barber was that chosen by the one who
had Bismarck for a customer. This man
sold little packets of hair from the head
of the man of blood and iron; but that is
a recent story Napoleon the first took
a notion that there was only one barber
in all Paris who knew how to cut hair
properly. His name was Duplan, and Ma
poleon advertised him so well that he
was able to secure great run of custom
as hairdresser. Napoleon allowed Dup
Ian 1000 francs year to dress the i'm
'2erial' hair, 5000 francs to dress Jose
phine's, and 5000 francs besides from the
public funds. Later this last item was
doubled, and still later, Duplan being for
hidden to dress the hair of any outsider,
a further grant Of 1,166 francs a year
from the government theatrical fund was
allowed to him. Later he got a total Of
10000 francs every twelve month, or So
DOO all told. hV had for tho
profession and the time, though not so
big as HabyS profits are said to be from
the custom of the military and other no.
liabilities who have heen focking to his
studio in Berlin for the past two or
three years. u"
BARRIERS as a class earn more money in
the United States than anywhere .else but
1t is only in the old world that they can
do well as Haby and Duplan have,
through the countenance of a parsonage.
1t was in France that Peter of Brosse,
who began as a barber, became the prime
minister of King Philip the Bold. Brosse
was afteWard hanged for his knavish
plottings, says the New York Press, but
his brief eminence was greater than that
achieved by any other barber whose
name is known to history.
BARRIERS may attain eminence of some
sort in America in spite of the fact that
personal patronage will not do so much
for them here as in some other lands.
There was once a. barber in New York
who became well known wherever modern
poetry Is read, and was able to say when
he retired forever from the business of
shaving, seven years ago or whereabouts,
that he had inspired at least one flight
of verse. This was Ignatius Hof, the
German barber, named in one of Richard
Watson elders early poetical pieces
HOff had place at Fifteenth street and
Fourth avenue, which he fitted up at
an expense of many thousands of dollars
after elders poem had spread his fame.
HOff's customers numbered scores of bank
presidents, railroad bigwigs, millionaires,
eminent authors, successful artists and
the like: Maybe he has now been for
gotten, and, possibly, the same is virtually
true Of the poetry about him.
Glider is not the only poet who has
been on specially good terms with a
barber. Tennyson's was a great admirer
of a village barber of his acquaintance
who was quite a conjurer in his way and
often amused rural audiences with his
skill. Once when Tennyson was among
those who witnessed an exhibition Of the
BARRIERS skill the latter gave the titled
versitier ten shillings to hold. When they
were asked for Tennyson could produce
only eight.
II don't doubt your honesty, M lud,"
said the barber, "but I'm afeared you've
passed the hodd two shilln's to Lady
Tennyson."
Sure enough on her closed hand being
examined the missing coins were found
therein, to her own and her husbands
mystifcation.
Its great credit to the village that
it can boast such talents as yours" said
Tennyson, when everybody had stopped
laughing. Whereat the barber felt vastly
puffed up. He tells. the story to this day
whenever a'stranger goes into his shop,
and has taken In many a tip for the tell
ing.
- ,.no,,,d l,o ho ri +o find q uorso 1rorl,
man of his sort in any civilized land, they
say, than the average English barber.
In the first place, English BARRIERS have
no chairs at all approaching the American
BARRIERS chairs for comfort. When you
70 into an English shop you sit down in
to common straight chair, and, If you
are wise, you brace yourself for such a.
mauling and hauling and pinching and
scraping as you won't forget in many
long day. It's decidedly mira dig to
be shaved by a barber in England any
way. All the swells are shaved by their
gentlenan's gentlemen. ana the Fellows
who aren't swell, but wish they were,
shave themselves.
Germans who barb for a living in the
Fatherland are as good BARRIERS, as a
rule, as the Germans who follow the
same calling here, but the pay of the
barber over there is startlingly small.
You can be shaved every day for a whole
week in almost any Germen city for
shade over twenty cents, which Is just
about five cents cheaper than the fee and
the tip for being shaved once in any
New York shop. How the BARRIERS in
Germany live on what they get out of
their trade is a mystery that none save
themselves can solve. 81
In Paris barber never dreams of rub
bling the lather in with the hand. To
crowd the mouth half full of suds, or to
jab soap into the eyes of a man being
shaved there, after the fashion of some
American BARRIERS would be considered
the height Of clumsy awkwardness by a
French master of the razor and shears,
and the French customers personal
dignity would suffer indescribably from
such treatment The more expert Gallo
BARRIERS never touch the hand to the face
at all, and they rarely try to foist poma-
tums or powders or essences upon their
victims. It is hardly likely American
BARRIERS would either if the customers
didn't like such things. Another good
thing about the French barber is his
rapidity. You feel lucky if you get out
of the chair in a quarter of an hour when
you get a New York barber to shave
you; in Paris five minutes is the average
time, and a six-minute shave is an ex-
ceedingly slow one.
Yet, in spite of all French BARRIERS good
points, there are plenty of Americans who
declare they can't hold a candle to the
BARRIERS Of New York and Boston and
other first-class Yankee towns, not to
speak Of the lady BARRIERS who are
common enough In the West, but have
not yet got much Of a foothold East $7