Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-06-13
TN THE BARBER SHOP

'"This grouchy man." remarked the boss
barber of a downtown tonsorial parior,
walked in one hot afternoon last week
and picked out with his eye the last chair
in the row because 1t looked cool and dark
down that way. He was fat, middle-aged
and weIl-dressed, and he looked like man
who knew where the money could be
found. But the heat had plainly developed
a crouch within him. He slammed his hat
on the hook as II he wanted to pull the
hook off. threw his coat and vest at the
boy as If the boy had done something to
him, yanked off his collar and necktie as
IL he didn't intend to use them any more
in his business. and pumped himself into
that end chair
az want a shave he growled sitting
straight up in the chair and looking the
barber straight in the eye. Yes. it's hot
I know it's hot. No, didn't go to the ball
game yesterday afternoon-I can see
enough cigar store Indians without paying
money to look at the Washingtons try to
play ball. l don't care boot how the
thermometer out in front of the shop reads
Yes, I've been reading about the post office
scandal and hearing about it until I'm
tired of the whole business. Yep, s'pose
it would be nice and cool down at the sea-
shore today. All that 1 want just now
and the man with the grouched leaned
back in the chair as if he considered it
all off. is to be sh'-
"At this point" went on the boss barber,
Il considered that it was about up to me
to execute my little sla,n-in. I strolled up
behind the man with the crouch and 1 said
to him:
Excuse me, sir but this barber is a
deaf mute-which was true-'and he's not
liable to bother you any
Il never saw man look so much like
a ten-cent base ball after the kids have
batted it around the lot on drizzly after
noon He glared at me and then he glared
at my mute barber. and then he settled
back in the chair with sheepish grin.
They're on me-" was all he said, and
when the mute barber got through with
him he slipped the dummy half and pleas
antly went through the motions of pouring
tall one down. He's been back for a
shave every afternoon since then, and if
my dummy razorman is busy he sits down
and patiently waits for him.
Now, that man was one of the very
few" continued the boss barber that
don't like to talk to their barber. All of
this stuff that you read about the misery
and grief of barber shop patrons who fall
into the hands of laxative BARRIERS is the
:purest moonshine. The chinny barber
passed out at least a dozen years ago. and
he never was SO chinny as he was pictured
AS matter OF fact, nine out of ten men
who patroniZe barber shops like to talk
to the barber and to have the barber talk
to them They get to know the barber, and
they've got a line of talk all mapped out
to work off on the barber when they climb
into his chair. Just keep your ears open
in here for ten minutes any time all of the
chairs occupied. and you'll find out
who's doing the bulk of the talking-the
BARRIERS or the customers Fact is. some
customers talk much that it's hard to
shave them 1 can set almost any man
that comes in here to talking soon as
he hangs up his hat, and he'll go right on
talking until he climbs out of the chair
with scarcely ever dipping in more
than a word or so.
"a lot of men visit barber shops whose
wives and families don't pay much atten-
ton to them when they try to unreel their
little accumulation of talk at home and
these somewhat stepped-on unfortunates
find 1t a positive pleasure to get to a place
like a barber shop, where they'll not only
be listened to, but actually encouraged to
talk
"Of course. there are some naturally
silent men who don't care particularly to
talk to anybody, much less barber A
few years ago had a customer who actual
ly let that he was deaf and dumb so
that he wouldn't have to talk or be talked
to while being barbered. 1 addressed some
little remark to him when he made his
first appearance in the shop, and he pointed
to his mouth and ears as IL to Indicate that
there was nothing transpiring in the way
of talking or listening so far as he was
concerned. Then he passed his hand over
his face to indicate that he wanted a shave.
1t was before Ia employed my dummy bar
Der or I'd have passed the man over to
him. Well he came in regularly every day
for shave after that But about six
months after he first turned up he pranced
in one Saturday afternoon with whooping
jag on, and the way he did converse dur
ing that sitting was sure lesson for "a
steam calitope. 1 didn't remind him of his
previous skillful imitation of mute, but
he must have got to thinking of the way he
had given himself away when he woke up
the next morning. for he never came back
to the shop, and 1 lost a good customer
just because of the bun that oiled up his
conversational machinery