Lexington gazette. [volume] (Lexington, Va.) 1871-1962, 1907-05-01
LEFT HANDED BARRIERS.
What One Of the Tonsorial Craft Has
to Say About Them.

~ SeJ EESee iHeWs
"Superstitious? should sa,
yes They won't admit it to an
one except members of the craft
but BARRIERS are the most supersti
tious people in the world"
The man in charge of the second
chair at one of the large hotel shops
stropped his razor and loquaciously
continued:
"You see that new man down al
The end chair? He just came to
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 a hoodoo
to any shop, and there's no getting
away from it. You may think that's
only prejudice that BARRIERS have
for left handed knights of the razor,
but it's well grounded superstition,
as old as the trade itself.
"We'd 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 left handed barber, and almost
every day an accident would happen
to some of the others. We told the
proprietor where the trouble lay,
but as he was not a barber he could
not understand what difference it
made whether a man shaved with
his right or left hand.
Zone day a runaway horse plung-
ed through the plate glass window,
and 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 TAU,
Gets would get cold as ice and the
razors would refuse to work proper
ly. Customers who for years had
been in the habit Of getting shaved
three or four times a week stopped
coming, and it was all due to that
left handed barber, 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 | ever saw. This fell
low speak of had red hair, and
that, of course, made it worse. We
finally induced the boss to fire him,
and just as soon as he was gone
things began to get good again.
"NOw, this fellow on the end, who
drifted in this morning, looks to be
a pretty good barber, but just as
soon as the boss saw him strop "a
zor with his left 'mitt' it was all of
for Julius. In most shops before a
new man is hired he is asked wheth-
er he is right OF left handed.
Left handed men who learn the
trade get on to this after awhile,
and then they switch to the right
hand-that is, if they can make
good with the right. Pm scared to
Heath that somebody is going teI
get killed around here before 8
o'clock tonight, when his 'nibs' will
AXE off his coat and take it away
Nth him.
"Another superstition among bar
oers is that they don't want to {
have the first customer that comes
n on Monday morning, That's a
ure sign of poor business all week
or the unlucky barber, Of course
omebody has got to shave the first
nan in, but you don't see the bar
'ers rushing madly up to their d
hairs and reckoning to the custom 8
r. You'll see one of them go for a
rink of water, another is too busy d
eading the sporting page to look .
p, and the others are all doing
omething that occupies their time. G
Whatever chair the customer climbs r
nto the barber who runs it is hoo '
coed for the week.
"Another popularity about bar +
ers is that one of the craft can tell f
fellow tradesman by shaving him, !,
Though he may never have seen b
ne man before. The way barber o
es in a chair when he is getting !,
laved and the way he unconscious I,
: assists the man with the razor r
p him off every time. He will /
i'm his head from one side to the 4
Their in a different way than other r
len who are not BARRIERS, and when p
lie razor is on his neck he'll raise ,
Is chin in a way that cannot be +,
,unterfeited. l never missed out "
a calling the turn on a barber in Ii
y life. Chicago Record-Herald, m