Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-09-28
BARBER SHOP sUPERsT1T1oNs.
Those Of the Knights of the Razor and
Their Customers

BARRIERS are superstitious and so are the
''bartcred.'' 1t is nip and tuck as to who
has the most good and bad luck omens.
Many men who are perfectly rational on
most subjects have a superstitious fear of
the i'll luck of the BARRIERS chair. and they
are set in their beliefs and fears by the
constant good and bad luck ideas advanced
by the wielders of the razor.
There's a reputable. front-seat. water
wagon newspaper man. for instance, who
sends out columns of good stuff to an
eastern paper but says whenever he per-
mits a freckled-faced colored barber to
shave him it simply means the fellow on
the opposition paper scoops him. And,
strange. too, the other newspaper man
claims bad luck follows him whenever any
barber other than his regular one ShaveS
him. To see a hunchback in a mirror of
barber shop indicates bad luck for two
weeks while to go in shop just as the
hunchback comes out means streak of
the best kind of luck the balance of the
year. 1t is not comforting to have the
barber tell you that to be cut twice on the
same side of the face will bring good luck
for many months and that to fly off the
handle and abuse the barber kills all chance
for the good luck to hit in your pathway.
A sure cure for rheumatism is to let red
headed barber cut your hair and never
speak word about horse races politics
while the job is being done. 1t is safe to
say that no cure will ever be made. for
red-headed BARRIERS are 'conversationalists
from Conversationville." If you sit cross
legged in BARRIERS chair, you hair is
liable to come out early in life, and bald
ness and gray hairs may be prevented by
agreeing with every superstitious belief
advanced by the entertaining artist
If you would guard against every form
OF bad luck, never permit barber to shave
your mustache before he does your chin.
Adherents of barber-shop omens say this
is the very worst thing which can befaH a
man. 1t is also claimed that
tache is shaved first a good crop Of beard
can never be grown, no matter how much
tonic and hair producers the artist may
use at cents per use. Never occupy a
chair just vacated by a pug-nosed man.
Any barber will tell you he dislikes to
shave a pug-noSed customer and boot
blacks give them a wide berth But the in
d1v1dual who causes dead set balk on the
part of the razor wielder is the stammering
man. BARRIERS declare 1t is almost impos-
slble to shave stammerer without npping
him with, the razor. Stammering simply
gets BARRIERS nerves unstrung and he
cannot handle his razor
Men thoroughly familiar with barber
shop superstitions always have their shoes
polished while being shaved. Most bar
bers object to the annoyance of the boot
black, but confess it means good luck to
| the customer. No barber will make an at
tempt to use white-handed razor to
shave red-headed man. He would never
succeed in doing more than making the
fellows face look like a porterhouse steak.
BARRIERS, however, claim that ed-headed
men who do their own work or keen indi-
vidual razors nearil always have white
handled razors. The limit on razors for a
busy days work is three for barber II
they sharpen and hone more than this
| number, bad luck will follow.
The man who gets shaved before break
fast will run in luck the entire day but if
he shaves himself before his mornings
| meal bad luck will follow. The man who
smokes during the time he is getting
shaved will never suffer from a raw face.
| If you carry rabbits foot, don't show it
| to your barber for it will take the charm
away Nearly all BARRIERS are believers in
the efficacy of the rabbit foot, but they
never exhibit the foot, keeping it always
In the left pocket of his trousers. If a
paroer makes a lather mug of your ear,
don't object, for your ear NAV be more
sanitary than the mug which he uses to
| lather hundreds of customers.