The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1904-10-21
BARBER SHOPS.
How They Vary From Porto Rico to
the Philippines.

WV FhitipPibGS-
The barber chair is one Of the soft
est places in the place. A man can
SINK into one of them and forget all
the troubles he ever had He may get
haircut. shampoo, shave, have
ms neck fixed up and then see that
the barber gives him a massage and
puts little eau de quinine on his hair
or what is left of his hair-and
by the time he is ready to march out
OF the barber chair the victim will be
Ieellng as good as ever he was. This
process will cost money, according
TO the barber, but it will be worth it.
MOI long ago young man who work
ed at night and got an uncertain day
OH during the week managed to :
accumulate large independence be-
cause he was looking on, the rye while
1t was red He got up the next
afternoon, and the first place he made
for was barber shop, where he ex-
pended about so cents in being fixed
up. The result was that he appeared
at his place of business looking like a
daisy, but was met with the query
as to why he was showing up for work
on his day off. He had lost a good
hang over and spent real money trying
to get in shape, when he might have
continued the motion and have saw
ed the money he expended.
Talking Of barber shops, the queer
est that any of the men in this sec
ton saw were those in Porto Rico.
They were labeled "Barberia," and
that word seemed to mean all that
was implied. On the whitewashed
wall OF a plaza in some of the towns
down there this sign could be read, \
and it did not matter whether it was
Saturday or Sunday-the work could
be done. 1t was the usual custom for
the soldiers to walk in and get the
native BARRIERS to go after their whisk-
erS, which. as rule, were week
or two overdue. They had an ante
diluvian fashion of scraping which
was not in accord with up to date
methods, but it took the hair off If the
barber had to take an extra scrape
at each individual hair. These barb
ers were not all that might be de-
sired, but they did the work finally.
The same way in Cuba; it was the
luck of the writer to have the since
Mayor of Alliance, o., shave him.
The correspondent would lean his
head against the trunk of palm tree,
and the mayor who was to be would
use his razor on him to the tune OF
80 cents a shave.
Down in Philippi, W. Va, there was !
barber shop, but when the CORE
spondent waded into the place through
the flood he found that the barber
was deep in game of checkers with 4
couple of his friends. The barber
said he would look things over at
mighty close stage, but when he came
to take the razor it was As minutes
by the clock from the time the news.
paper man had butted in. The cor
respondent was shaved all right, but
he swears to this day that it was the
longest date he ever put in in waiting
for lawn mower to be run over his
chin
The Filipino barber has a small
bladed razor that looks like a minia-
ture axe. He does not lather his
victim, believing that the American is
much the same as the Chinese, who
does not require any soap. This small
axe the native Manila barber runs ov-
er the face of his victim, and the re-
suit is that there is trouble all along
the line.
In Nagasah the same thing pre-
walls. There is nothing but trouble
all the time, and the barber takes his
life in his hands every time that he
thinks he is shaving a white man.
The Japanese are hairless race, so
to speak, and when the bewhiskered
white man hits one Of their towns
there is trouble right from the start.
1t is all a case of barber, and the
shaver who cannot keep pace with the
accepted idea of barber in the Unit
ed States might as well take to the
woods.-Pittsburg Dispatch.