The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-08-13
MANY BALD HEADS.
Chicago Man Sur
prised at Worces-
ter BARRIERS.
The PHENOMENON EXPLAINED.
1t Is Due to Peculiar Ma
ture Of the Pro-
fession.
THE PHENOMENON EXPLAINED.

he ventured the remark, Il have been
about this country good bit in my
time, but in no city of its size have
come across so many bald-headed
BARRIERS as there are in Worcester"
THE explanation Of that phenom-
enon,' answered the barber lis simple
enough. You have probably observed
that as a rule there are few old BARRIERS
in the business 1t is a trade that re-
quires firm, steady nerve and for this
reason is best adapted to the young
man. In Worcester, however, there are
larger proportion of old men welding
the razor, population considered, than
there is anywhere else in the United
States. Almost invariably old BARRIERS
are bald-headed. Just why this is so,
cannot say, but it is a self-evident
fact"
What becomes of the old BARRIERS
When they leave the business?"
We'll" replied the barber, this is
not a trade which makes it at all like
~ that a mans suspenders will break
down because his pockets may be
burdened with wealth. At the best, we
get only a good living at it. Still by
thrift and industry one may accumu-
late a little property, the income from
which may support old age, but for the
most part when BARRIERS leave the trade
they drift into something else"
On the shelf near the mirror was a
bottle marked For badness try DR..
Frawds hair grower"
DO you sell much of that?" asked
the Chicago man. 81 should think that
the fact of your being bald would keep
temptation from the prospective pur-
chaser
We'll, the average man is not OBJ
servant, and have good demand for
that hair grower There is a fascina-
ton about nostrums for a great many
people, and if 1 was to go out on the
common with this hair grower and say
that it was not only good to raise a
| crop of hair on a bald head, but was
also a permanent cure for catarrh
liver complaint, dyspepsia and bilious
ness, and as a blood purifier and an oil
| to put polish on tan shoes, it had no
| equal, there are any number of people
| that would rush forward with their
! good coin of the republic and plank it
| down for one or another of these spe-
cial purposes.
But speaking of bald headed BARRIERS
| and the reasons for badness being so
prevalent among men of our calling,
| reminds me of a fellow who became
| bald through fright
LAS you know, we are often called
upon TO shave a corpse Well this par
! ticular fellow | have in mind got one
of these calls. A man had died sudden
| ly it was supposed and the family
| wished to have the body prepared for
| burial. Now we fellows have our ideas
| of humor just the same as undertakers
| have, and after lathering the face of
the dead man the barber began TO joke
with him.
HE faceti@lsly inquired if the corpse
would have a close shave, and if he
| liked bay rum or witchhazel best. OF
course the corpse said never a word
and finally the barber asked: Does
the razor hurt you, old felow?" AS he
did so, he cut the face and drew blood
1.-THE corpse jumped from the table
to the floor, and as he gave the barber
rousing kick in a vulnerable point he
shouted, Does it hurt? L should say it
did,
Perhaps that barber didn't skedaddle!
With howl of fright and with terror
dilating his eyebals he rushed from
the house as if the old Harry was
close upon his heels. The corpse, ii
seems simply was in a sort of trance
or coma and the drawing of the blood
upon the face brought him out of it,
1t was rather shabby treatment,
lilOQSH 10 KILN Tit poor OdTDeF whose
act probably saved him from being bur-
led alive This happened in town
in the wild western part of the coun-
try, where undertakers and embalm-
| ing processes are as scarce and UNI
known as snakes in Ireland"
Having secured an attentive listener
and being wound up the barber contin-
ued: do you know that shaving is
one of the most ancient of arts now
Low Dr,fO oil tc naPo Sc
| made to it by the classical Homer when
he says, Death or life stands on the
| razors edge
Tradition says that shaving came into
vogue in ancient Greece after a raid
into Attica by the Macedonians. The
long boards of the Greeks We're a cineh
for the wild men of Macedon, and the
way they yanked them around in bat
tie was a caution. The Greek COM
mander saw that to save the country it
would be necessary TO resort to heroic
measures, so he issued the ultimatum
All boards off, That primeval shaving
was torture no doubt but it had to be
done as a war measure, and the Greeks
probably stood it like stoics.
Shaving indeed appears to be coe-
val with all authentic history. 1t is
interesting to trace its progress in
Rome from the days of the republic
down to the decline and fall of the i'm
perial government Of the Caesars.
I'VE read how shaving got a great
boom when Scipio Africanus brought
some BARRIERS over from Carthage, and
set them UP in business in Rome. In
the age of Adrian a man with a beard
was regarded as a clodhopper and the
daily shave was as popular with the
sports of the eternal city as the con-
tests Of the gladiators.
"Reverting to the subject of old
BARRIERS brings to mind a certain man
who retired from the business to be-
come butcher, and a good butcher he
made for 1t came naturally to him for
he was certainly a butcher at shaw
Ing.
"Then, again, an old barber who was
contemplating suicide would be a dam
gerous man to allow to shave you, for
he would be apt to slit your windpipe
| instead of his own
"All ever read of the history Of bar
bers indicates that they have been
| the same in all ages, retaining their
| customs with the fixitY of the Chinese
The chief characteristic seems to be
that they are linguaceous. You, for
instance. are a type of your kind and
must confess that you have enter
| tanned me, but was there ever a deaf
and dumb barher?"
The tonsorial artist paused as he was
brushing the Chicago mans hair, and
| ruminated for q moment Then he
said. mo. there never was, to my
knowledge. II there was, the very ma
ture Of the business would give words
| to his tongue, and he would talk de-
spite himself and nature"
There's only one thing that | object