The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-12-16

From the Washington Star.
 THERE seems to be considerable di-
 versity of opinion on the part of
 the boss barbers of the capital as to the price of shave or hair cut,' re- marked smoothly shaved man, and as to whether there shall be an extra charge for shaving the neck and for the use of hot towel
 But there is no diversity of opinion on the part of the men who are shaved by barbers that few more arrests and fines of sl0, as was recently made in George town for keeping shop in an insanitary condition, will do more toward this needed reform than tons of talk and moral sua- sion.
 "It has always given me a chill of hor- TOT, perhaps because I am physician, to see barbers reach out for d needle lying on the razor stand and calmly prick a pimple on the face of a man in the chair. Then they will take a pair of small tweez- CTS and apply them to some portion of a mans face, perhaps in squeezing an erup tion, or elsewhere upon an open scratch or cut. put the same Olu needle anu tweezers are used just the same.
 '1f you have the hardihood to call to the barber's attention the deadly danger of this pernicious practice, he will look at you in astonishment and reply that the articles used are clean' and are wiped off after each application. You see, the barber, from his limited standpoint pities your ignorance and resents your implied assertion that his articles are not clean
 But the amazing part of it is that men submit to these hazardous facial manipu- lations with complacency and as a mat ter of course. It is past my individual understanding, but you witness it every day in barber shops in every city in the country. It is bad enough to go into the average barber shop and be shaved by a razor which, in nine cases out of ten, is merely wiped off on the shaving paper be- fore it is replaced in it's sheath. This leaves out entirely the fact that your face has had a preliminary scrubbing with soap and brush which are used promiscu ously upon other faces, very often but inn perfectly rinsed after the previous use.
 Men should positively and firmly de- cline these gratuitous offices on the part of barbers, and never under any circum- stances permit the application to the face of any metal instrument except the razor itself
 Tt has likewise given mo spasms of horror to observe the tonsoral artist, when a cut in the skin is made by the ra zor, or the cuticle surfaces are abrased. or the apex of a pimple or other eruption scraped. methodcally reach for small or large piece of alum or stick of caus tic and apply it to the cut or abrasion to heal or stop the bleeding. And 1t is the same old piece of alum or stick of caustic that goes on each and every face, though. of course it is always 'clean,' or wiped off, and therefore harmless from the bar ber's standpoint.
 And men foolshly take this applicat tion of extraneous substances to the face as they do the needle and the tweezers, as q matter of course-and through habit and long established custom, though in some instances they could with equal safety submit to a hypodermic injection of the vi- rus of one of several dangerous and in fectious diseases.
 When youth, and long before I began the study of medicine, I never permitted such applications to my face. and my fusal in a majority of cases has caused a mild or indignant protest on the part of the learned razor -wielder. l have always insisted, when a cut was developed, that the clean end of the towel soaked i'm hot water be applied. and this Is bad enough in itself under the circumstances.
 "Neither have I permitted barbers to ap- ply after shaving the regulation and time honored face wash. of various mixtures. ranging from diluted witch hazel to what is claimed to be bay rum. This face wash comes also from the same old bottle and is applied by the same hand that has gone over other faces. The application of the scented water from bottles and the rub ping of the hair after shave or a hair cut largely tends to cause falling of the hair and resultant baldness-barbers have