The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1903-04-17

WHERE "roNsoRlAL ARTISTS" ARE
TAUGHT SECRETS Or THE CRAFT

iAHM a MNN MM|MNM HHNf#tHHA AMN 4 NNNNfANr~
Strange Characters Who Take Advan-
tago or tho Opportunity Of Having
Their Hair Cut and shave for Nothing
One OF the most curious OF the many
strange institutions of New York City
IS a school established not long ago
on the East Side where young men
and boys are taught 10 become skilled
BARRIERS In this school long rows of
BARRIERS apprentices are at work all
day throughout the course, scraDing
diligently at sundry stolid counten-
ances provided for "clinic material
When not working in this capacity.
the majority OF the faces so used
might be met on the Bowery or in
kindred regions, surrounding the
slouching frames typical Of Americas
leisure class. Some are placid coun-
tenances, bearing evidence Of a Mi
cawber-like trust in potential good
luck; Others are sullen or troubled,
with the hunted look that comes to
the face Of a man out Of a job; but
each and every one Is the better for
a free shave and haircut, even when
awkwardly done by unaccustomed
hands.
In order that material for practice
may be plentiful and at hand the
school is situated far down town,
where traffic Of every sort is thickest
and where the great city's voice takes
on It's deepest and most insistent tone.
With the first drowsy growls Of that
multiple voice at dawn, the men be-
gin to gather and form in line at the
entrance to the building. Many of
them have stood for hours in the mid
night bread line on Broadway that
they might break their fast at least
once in the "a hours, and now come
to be freshened up as much as posi-
BILE before starting forth again on the
weary quest for work; others, equally
alive to the advantages of being shaw
en- and shorn and made as presentable
as may be, come by way Of living up
to their life principle of getting some
thing for nothing, and getting it be-
fore any one else.
At 8 o'clock the school is opened
and work begins. Men come and go
all day, and the aspirants to barber
craft work like beavers, getting more
practice in one day than they would
| get in a month under the old method
of apprenticeship. All sorts and con-
| ditions Of men come under their hands
tramps, vagabonds, crooks, workmen
out of a job, gentleman adventures
down on their luck, fat men, shriv-
elled men, smooth men, gnarled men,
men with skins like rubber, and men
surfaced like nutmeg graters, downy
youth and stubbly eld-here is expe-
rience varied enough to qualify any
one. Only three kinds Of men are
barred-the unclean. the intoxicated
and the men who have once stolen,
begged or given any manner Of trouble
in the school, One offence is sufficient
here. The master barber, quiet and
alert, has an unerring eye and a
strong arm, and woe to the man who
sneaks in for shave after having
been forbidden the place.
This gray November morning, when
the master barber told of the teaching
and learning of his craft, saw about
200 men sitting on benches in the
darkest corner of the wOrkroom, await
ing their turn. The big room was din
gy but clean, well lighted from one
side, and sparsely furnished with two
long workstands running from wall
to wall and flanked by double rows OF
we'll worn barber chairs. These were
all filed and the ranks of busy bar
behring's were hard at work. Most OF
them were boys, ranging in age from
16 to 20 years, but here and there an
older man stood by one of the chairs
learning his trade at a time when
most men. are well established in life
One CHEEKY old fellow, with hair as
white as snow, worked patiently
among the students, though at best
it could be but a few years before
hand and eye would fail, and dexterity
with the razor would be thing of the
past All the students worked steadily
and conscientiously, aided now ant
again by a hint from the master bar.
Der as he strolled up and down Tho
lines. Some Of the beginners attacked
the task before them with nervous
painstaking care, each grasping tn,
razor hatchetwise in tense hands anC
dragging it like a gravel crushel
across the unresisting jaw of his es
pecial segment of clinic material
Others, presumably the born BARRIERS
or the more advanced students, worked