The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-03-04

work here this morning, and he'll have a nice large can tied to his coat tonight Why? Because he's left handed. If he remained here every , barber in the shop would quit before the week was out.
 "A left handed barber Is hoodoo to any shop, and there's no. getting away from 1t. You may think that's only a prejudice that barbers have for left handed knights of the razor, but It's a well grounded superstition, as old as the trade itself.
 Wed be apt to have all kinds of hard luck if that fellow stayed here any length of time. once worked in New York shop where there was a | left handed barber, and almost every day an acdent would happen to same of the others. We told the proprietor where the trouble lay, but as he was not barber he couldn't understand what difference it made whether a man shaved with his right or his left l hand.
 "One day a runaway horse plunged | lulpQSU lllt plilt Eleboof NAllhbNi etll0 another day mad dog ran into the shop, followed by policeman, who killed the beast under the left handed mans chair Without any apparent reason the hot water faucets would get as cold as ice. and the razors would refuse to work properly. Gus toners who for years had been in the habit of getting shaved three or four time a week stopped coming, and it was all due to that lief handed bar Der. During all the while he was there not one of us won a bet on policy, although the porter used to dream some of the best numbers I ever saw. This fellow I speak of had read hair, and that, of course, made it worse. We finally induced the boss to fire him, and just as 500 as he was gone things began to get good again.
 Now, this fellow on the end, who drifted in this mornbng, looks to be a pretty good barber, but just as soon as the boss saw him strop razor with his left mitt' 1t was all up for Julius. In most shops before new man is hired he is asked whether he is right or left handed.
 Left handed men who learn the trade get on to this after a while, and then they switch to the right hand | that is, if they can make good with the right. I'm scared to death that somebody is going to get killed around here before So'cock tonight, when his 'nibs will take off his coat and take it away with him.
 Another superstition among barb CTS is that they don't want to shave | the firstcustomer that comes in on Monday morning That's sure sign of poor business all week for the un- | lucky barber Of course somebody has got to shave the first man in, but you don't see the barbers rushing madly up to their chairs and beckoning to | the customer. You'll Sc one of them go | for a drink of water, another is too busy reading the sporting page to l look up, and the others are all doing something that occupies their time Whatever chair the customer climbs into the barber who runs it is hoodoo- GU TUT tue rest oL tAS "Seh'
 l Another peculiarity about barbers is that one of the craft can tell a fel- low tradesman by shaving him, al- though he may never have seen the man before. The way a barber lies in a chair when he is getting shave and the way he unconsciously assists the man with the razor tips him off every time. He will turn his head from one side to the other in a different way than the men who are not barbers. and when the razor is on his neck he will raise his chin in a way that cannot be counterfeit. I never missed out calling the turn on a barber in my life"