The Greeley tribune., 1907-06-13
LEFT HANDED BARRIERS.
What Ono Of the Tonsorial Graft Has
TO Say About Them.

ives They won't admit it to any
one except members of the craft,
but BARRIERS are the most superstl-
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 at
the end chair? He just came to
work heJe 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. l 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 barber he could
not understand what difference it
made whether a man shaved with
his right or left hand.
"One 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 fau-
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 l ever saw. This fel-
low l 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 ra-
zor with his left smitt' it was all off
for Julius. In most shops before a
new man is hired he is asked wheth-
er he is right or left handed.
Cleft 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
death that somebody is going to
get killed around here before 8
o'clock tonight, when his 'nibs' will
take off his coat and take it away
with him.
"Another superstition among bar
bers is that they don't want to
shave the first customer that comes
in on Monday morning. That's a
sure sign of poor business all week
for the unlucky barber. Of course
somebody has got to shave the first
man in, but you don't see the bar.
hers rushing madly up to theil
chairs and beckoning to the custom.
ker. You'll see one Of them go for g
drink of water, another is too busy
reading the sporting page to 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 hoo.
dooed for the week.
"Another popularity about bar.
bers is that one of the craft can tel
a fellow tradesman by shaving him
although he may never have seer
the man before. The way barber
lies in chair when he is getting
shaved and the way he unconscious
ly assists the man with the razol
tip him off every time. He viii
turn his head from one side to the
other in different way than Other
men who are not BARRIERS, and wher
the razor is on his neck he'll raise
his chin in way that cannot be
.ounterfeited. | never missed out
on calling the turn on barber il
my life. Chicago Record Herald.