The true Democrat. [volume] (Bayou Sara [La.]) 1892-1928, 1908-02-08
BARRIERS ALL sUpERsTl71oUS.
Left Handed Man a Hoodoo-Flrst
Customer Of the Week.

They won't admit 1t to any one eXceSt
members Of the craft, but BARRIERS are
the most superstitious people in the
world"
The man in charge Of the second
chair at one OF the large shops strop-
ped his razor and loquaciously contin-
ued, says, the Chicago Record-Herald:
"You see. that new man down at
the end Of the chair He just came to
work here this morning, and he'll have
a nice large can tied to his coat to,
night. Why? Because he's left hand
ed. II 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 a well grounded superstition, as
old as the trade itself.
WED be apt to have all kinds Of
hard luck II that fellow stayed here
any length OF time | once worked in
a New York shop where there was a
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 couldn't understand
what difference it made whether a
man shaved with his right or his left
hand.
Zone day a runaway horse plunged
through the plate glass window, and
another day mad dog ran into the
shop, followed by policeman, VINO
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 re-
fuse to work properly. 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, al
though the porter used to dream some
Of the best numbers l ever saw. This
fellow 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 razor
with his left 'mitt' it was all Up for
julius In most shops before a new
man is hired be is asked whether he
is right or left handed.
Lett 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 s 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 un-
lucky barber. Of course somebody
has got to shave the first man in.
but you don't see the BARRIERS rush
ing madly up to their chairs and
reckoning to the customer. You'll
see one of them go for a drink of wa
ter, another is too busy reading the
sporting page to look up, and the
others are all oding something that
occupies their time. Whatever snair
the customer climbs into the barber
who runs it is hoodooed for the rest
Of the week.
Another popularity about BARRIERS
is that one of the craft can tell a
fellow tradesman by shaving him, al
though he may never have seen the
man before. The way a barber lies
in chair when he is getting shaved
and the way he unconsciously as.
sists 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 other men who
are not BARRIERS, and when the razor
is on his neck he will raise his chin
in a way that cannot be counterfeited.
l never missed out on calling the turD
on a barber in my life"