The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-03-17

:. Because he's left-handed. If he remained 1 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 barbers have for left | handed knights of the razor but it's well-grounded superstition, as old as the trade itself.
 Wed be apt to have all kinds ot hard luck If that fellow stayed here any length of time. 1 once worked in New York shop where there WAS a left-handed barber, and almost every day an acc- dent would happen to some of the others. We told the proprietor where the trouble | lay, but as he was not d barber, he couldn't understand what difference 1t | made whether d man shaved with his
 right or his left hand.
 "Onc day runaway horse plunged 1 through the plate glass window. and an- 1 other day q mad dog ran into the shop | followed by policeman who killed the ! beast under the left-handed mans char. Without any apparent reason the not l water faucets would get cold as ice. and | the razors would refuse to work prop l erlv Customers who for years had been i in the habit of getting shaved three or | four times d week stopped coming. and | it was all due to that left-handed bar | her. During all the while he was there
 not one of us won bet on policy al 1 though the porter used to dream some l of the best numbers l ever saw. This 1 fellow I speak of had red hair, and that, 1 of course. made it worse. We finally ] induced the boss to fire him. and Just l as soon as he was gone things began 1 to get good again.
 ] Now, this fellow on the end, who l drifted in this morning looks to be a | ha r,q ltif d
 the boss saw him strop a razor with his | left 'mitt' it was all for Julius In most | shops before new man is hired he s ] asked whether he is right or left handed. Left handed men who learn the trace | get onto this after q while, and then | they switch to the right hand-that is. if | they can make good with the right. | m l scared to death that somebody Is going 1 to get killed around here before o'clock 1 tonight when his 'nibs' will take off hs coat and take 1t away with him. 1 Another superstition among barbers is | that they don't want to shave the first customer that comes in on Monday morn | ing. That's sure sign of poor business all week for the unlucky barber. Ot course. somebody has got to shave the 1 first man in, but you don't see the par. bers rushing madly up to their chairs ana becjSoning to the customer. You'll see ons | of them go for a drink of water another | is too busy reading the sporting page to | look up and the others are all doing 1 something that occupies their time 1 Whatever chair the customer climbs into 1 the barber who runs it is hoodooed for | the week.
 | Another peculiarity about barbers is ' that one of the craft can tell a fellow 1 tradesman by shaving him, although he
 may never have seen the man before. The
 way a barber lies in q chair when he IS
 getting shaved, and the way he uncon- | sciously assists the man with the razor
 tips him off every time. He will turn his head from one side to the other in n different way than other men who are not barbers, and when the razor is on his neck he will raise his chin in way that cannot bs counterfeted. never missed out on calling the turn on bar
 Der in my life,