The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-11-19
Tell Of Disease Germs and
Danger to
Health.

War against the proprietors and pat
rons of barber shops where shaves and
hatrcuts are advertised at prices that
defy and stagger competition, is being
waged by wielders ofathe lather brush
who are in the business to make it clean
and get money for it.
All efforts to drive cheap barber shops
out of existence have been fruitless.
Petitions to the legislature which re-
suited in a vote on the bill for licens-
ing BARRIERS and defeat of the move
Ihent to make "tonsorial artists" le-
g1ttmate practitioners of a profession,
were staggerers to Worcester boss bar
bers who have continually struggled to
Knock the cheap shop owners into bank
ruptcy. The "nickel-a-shave" system
is still in vogue in this city, and Is
cent haircuts thrive, and victims, too
If they are fortunate.
Disease germs Turk in the vicinity
of the cheap barber shops" said a boss
barber the other. day, land unless the
board of health conducts a thorough
investigation; there will be general i'll
health among patrons of the dives"
The man who entrusts the care of his
face to a man who is willing to do it
for a nickel, is taking all kinds of
for life
"A man who has never considered it
provident to patronize a cheap barber
shop would never change his opinions
after visiting the best of the cheap
shops. The chairs are straight backed,
rckety affairs, and the razors are
cross between, a saw and Ratchet
blade But the worst feature of the
cheap shop is the towel system. Half
dozen pieces of cloth are good enough
for face-soakers, and when the day s.
work begins, the proprietor fills a boiler
over small oil he>ter and waits for
hot water. If he is a neat man, he
will push the dirt from the floor into
q pile in one correr. When the water
is hot, the apologies for towels get
doused, and are left to soak. The first
customer gets a towel when it is in
its prime, but later in the day, when
the same towel has been used on the
faces of men of all nationalities and
conditions as regards cleanliness it
gets kind of putrid, but that doesn't
matter Shaves cost but a nickel
FIvE-C CENT SHOPS.
Sudbury, Mechanic, Green, Hanover
and Millbury streets have cut-price
barber shops Within a stones throw
of the hall in which the journeymen
BARRIERS of local fair-priced shops meet
to map out plans for action against the
Cheap Johns" is a shop in which Is
cent haircuts are guaranteed to be sat
iSfactory and nickel shaves soul-sooth-
ing.
There was time not many months
ago when Mechanic street barber es-
sayed to cut hair for 10 cents and
shave for 5. A customer on entering
took his place in row of walters who
were benched on a settee. Two chairs
were kept running, and the men who
shaved did no lathering. The proprietor
had not overlooked this important part
of the proceedings, and he had hired
boys to do the work. Small sized bill
posters brushes were used to slop the
lather over the faces of the customers,
and the young men began at each end
of the line and lathered the customers
Sometimes the man in the chair was a
tough customer" and several minutes
might be expended in drawing the ra-
zor through the mass of hair and la
Their. When it became the turn of a
waiter the lather might be dried on his
face like dried plaster, but that only
necessitated more hacking by the man
with the implement known as the ra-
Zor.
This system went up in the air and
the doors were locked. Some one had
stolen a razor or borrowed it for a few
days, and the shop was closed, await
ing its return. When a neighbor
brought the cleaver to the proprietor
with apologies for having kept it long
eri than had been his custom, an ex-
PLANTATION was demanded. It developed
the fact that the razor had been used
to cut leather strips for shoe patches.
The proprietor concluded to go out of
business, and now he is working in a
butcher shop.
Men who patronize cheap barber
shops, if they have any ear-marks of
responsibility, are marked for life by
proprietors of clean shops, If the cheap
barber hasn't done it already. Good
R@rbers make a specially of deduction.
The manner in which a customer sits
in the chair, indicates to the keen eyed
and
QUICK WITTED BARBER
the business or trade in which the Gus
toner is engaged. Strangers seldom
have to tell a barber who they are and
what they do for living. The BARRIERS
find it out without asking. If man is
in business for himself, he will always
take off his coat and display clean lin
en-. The machinist with shirt sleeves be-
smeared with grease, never removes his
coat, and a flannel shirt gives him
away. To decide whether a man is a
city laborer or a machinist, it is only
necessary for the barber to say, 1.-THE
board of aldermen is certainly a beaut "
If the man Is machinist, he will say:
We'll, Of all the" etc, but the city la
borer will simply mutter, 1--WE amt got
no aldermen" t..
Local BARRIERS are wondering what
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