Evening star., 1902-05-24

cations of fire. and, moreover, there was no
screaming other manifestations of ex-
cftement on the part of the women Chamber
ing down the fire escape. They just step
ped down the ladders in buSineSs-like fash
ion, without saying word. and when they
reached the ground they walked down the
back yard to the alley gate in good order,
and then leisurely paraded down the alley
to the street, where they separated.
These women were just lodging a pool
room raid, man-fashion, that was all. The
exclusively yfor-women and run-by-women
establishment for the playing of the horses
was located in beautifully furnished fat
on the fourth floor of the building whence
the women departed by means of the fire
escape. 1t had been in operation for
month or more when, on that afternoon,
the propretress of it was tipped off, over
a telephone wire, that a wagon load of po-
lice was on the way to put her out of busi-
ness. She quietly announced the fact to
her patrons. named a place where they
could collect their bets later on, instructed
them as to the best method Of getting
down the fire escape, cautioned them as TO
the making of any unnecessary noise. Down
the fire escape they went, with all of the
dead game coolneSs in life.
What the Police Found.
When the police arrived they found the
proprietress of the womens pool room en-
gagged in putting the finishing touches to a
charming bit of Honiton lace work. con-
received them with great surprise depicted
on her amable countenance She showed
them through her fiat, which didn't contain
enough evidence to convict snowbird.
The top man of the cops admiringly told
her that she was wonder, and then
the policemen departed empty handed. The
woman is now said to have another pool
room plant in full, if subdued, blast far
ther up in Harlem.
There are several pool rooms for the ex-
elusive accommodation of women afflicted
with the horse-betting mania in operation
in New York all the time. good many
of the women prefer the pool rooms to the
tracks for various reasons, one of which
is that there is no admission fee; another,
that elaborate buffet luncheons are served
in the womens pool rooms, and still an
other, perhaps the most important of all,
that they can indulge their propensity for
gambling in secret. A good many of the
women who patronize these pool rooms are
matrons who know that they would find
their husbands find out their hopeless
method of getting rid of their pocket
money.
BARRIERS Who Get Big Fees.
There is a barber shop in this town where
the customers, and there are really more
of them than can be attended to, pay 50
Tor a hair cut. The establishment is on
the second floor of a 9th avenue building
1t is pretty ornate layout. When you as
cend the stairs you are received by an
eiaborately llveried chap, who hands YOU a
metal medalllon with a number on it and
then you are conducted to a mighty smart
looking reception room, tastefully set off
with modern works of art. When YOUR
NUMBER is called by another fellow in liv-
cry you are escorted to dressing room
where you make ready for the hair-remov,
ing process No shaving is done at tho
place When, at length, you are taken to
the private stall where the barber who iS
10 operate iS
duced to lot of new kinks in the barber
ing business. The barber spends about fen
minutes in carefully scrutinizing YOU from
every point of view, twisting Won around IN
the revolving chair as if Won were n,,
lathe machine and he engaged in trimming
off your rough edges Then the harhar
puts onto your head a new-fangIed ma
chlne, similar in most essentials To tba
measuring apparatus used bv some hatterS
TO get the shape of Your head, and. after
good many such preliminaries he gets
GOWN 10 the work of cutting your hair in
accordance with his ideas of art
The two dollars worth is all in the rre
IlInlnarles, for when you leave the chair
you nave about all the hair that Won had
wiieh you entered the establishment The
haircut that the scissors-wielding fellow
with the Burne-Jones makeup gives you
doesn differ materially from the regular
oiu tWenty-hVe-cent haircut to which Won
nave nave peen accustomed all your life, except
that the poet who does the work takes off
much less hafr-not enough, in fact to
make 1t possible for you to convince your
Wlfe that you've had your head operated on
by the scissors at all. The 81 haircut as
mus dlshed out at the esta blishment de-
scribed Is really unique frame-up whereby
the shfeWd chap who conducts it contrtyes
70 10 wheeole 1oiks with more time and money
IMAM good sense out of additional 81 ~
every time they need a haircut The hoss
barber knew his town all right when he
started his 50 haircut scheme New York
is pre-eminently the town of good things "
tn' al of
lodges.
School for BARRIERS, Too.
1t Is leap from the sublime to the ridicu-
ious, While on this topic, to advert to the
BARRIERS school which has been in OPERA
tlon IN this town for some years, to the
vast disgust of the regular BARRIERS who
learned the business by the hard process of
Stafung IN as sweep-out boys in shops
But the BARRIERS school is such a funny
outfit in its way that 1t is worth a word or
two. Young fellows who are ambitious to
make BARRIERS of themselves give up a lump
sun. sum IN advance as tuition money, and then
they are privileged to practice upon their
victims under the critical eye of the over
seer. Whenever you meet a lot of hobo-l like
individuals woefully walking around the
general nelghborhood of that BARRIERS
school, holding on to their slashed and
bleeding countenances, you do not if YOU
are aware Of the situation, jump to the
conclusion that they have been caressed by
needless trolley cars or toyed with by ram
pageous bull terriers You are Instantly
aware that they have been visiting the bar
bers' school for free shaves.
The pupils clientele consists wholly
of the sort of castaways known as
buns with an occasional sprinkling
of longshoremen who feel that there
is too much mixed-ale potentiality in
a nickel to surrender the same for so
purely ornamental affair as a shave
1t may not be all one to these unfortunates
that when the pupils of the BARRIERS school
get through scraping them their faces look
like uncooked hamburger steaks, or that
their shorn locks, after operation by
BARRIERS school pupil, cause their polls to
look like a circular section of a Russian
steppe-the main idea Of the victims being
to have the hair removed with no sacrifice
of money, for which they have more ex-
hilarating uses.
And, while on this subject Of men who
earn liVelihOOdS by the work of their hands