The citizen. (Honesdale, Pa.) 1908-1914, 1909-07-28
IN HIS TIME DAVE
SHAVED $4,000
New When Tired Rests, No Mat
ter How Many Customers
Are Waiting for Him
OLDEST BARBER MAKES COMMENTS

Strong Masculinity that Formerly
Marked Them-5ays 5arberine Is
not a Trade, is a Profession.
Cleveland, Ohio.-Right opposite
the Cuyahoga Falls Hotel is Dave
Berkheimer's barber shop, whose pro-
prietor works when he feels like it and
at no other time. An evening or so
ago, at an hour when business usually
gets brisk, he turned the lights low,
carried a chair out to the sidewalk,
and, seating himself, lighted a pipe
and was putting away contentedly
when he had call. 1t was Jake Bou-
ron, who came in from the farm with
a bunch of hair on his face, the crop
of full week. N his buttonhole was
a flower and he wore pale blue neck
tie, for 1t was the night he always set
apart for his girl:
Guess III try one of your shaves.
pop" he remarked, hesitating at the
doorstep.
Not this evening. you won't" OBJ
served Dave.
Whats the reason | won't? Amt
this regular barber shop, and ain
you a regular barber. and amt YOU
gotta shave anybody that's got the
price? And if that's all that's wrong
of you, kin show I've got that all
right"
MY boy" said Dave, II want to
work when l want to and not when
other people want me to. I'll tell you
something. started in this busin ess
when l was thirteen years old. I'm
seventy-three now. That makes sixty
years at the strop. I'm the eldest
barber in the United States. And all
this time I've been working, thinking
| had to. Well I've just decided that
don't have to and l amt going to.
Good night"
Has Dave retired?
Not a bit of it. That's merely his
declaration of independence. Actual.
ly he's working harder than ever.
But" he says, 1--WE saved bit OF
money, and I'm beholden to no man.
And from now on I'm going to work
till get tired, and when | get tired
I'm going to lay off If the whole shops
full of people.
Yes, you bet I've shaved some
men in my day. l figure that I've
worked on about 6,CG0 faces and heads
year on an average for sixty years
That makes it run upward 100000 fol
my sixty years, don't it?
Has the human face undergone any
changes? Well, should say it has
And not for the better eitueI, it seems
to me. You don't see any rugged
strong faces any more. like you used
! to.
Mems faces used to be hard and
| big, and the hair on the top of the
| head was as thick as it was on the
| chin and jaws. Men are getting tt
be more like women. Their faces are
| big enough sometimes, but they're soft
and kind of flabby-that old hardness
isn't there any more. The hairs al
on the face and not on the head.
There has been change in the
cheek bones. Most young fellows now
adays seem to have kind of higf
cheek bones. They don't look no more
like their grandads than a cat doe!
| like a tiger.
I've figured that we can blame the
hats for the bald heads. Men didn'
used to be so careful about covering
their heads up with air-tight straw
and the like of that in the hot sum
mer. They used to wear hats that le
plenty of air in, and that's what thei
hair needs morn anything else. Hair'l
never come out if you keep it clear
and give it plenty of air."
There's no unsteadiness about Dav,
for all his sixty years at the strop
One of his favorite jokes is to get
man that he can not hold pin in hi
hand, arm stretched horizontally, 70
ten minutes. 1t sounds easy, but dit
you ever try it? Few men can do II
Dave can.
Dave smokes a good deal. Also h
drinks-two beers a day.
"My own idea about this drink bus
ness" he says, "is that the more yo
say to man that he mustn't take il
tho harder he'll go after it. Now
was going to say that I'd drink all m
life. but never had been drunk-but
was once.
Lets see-it was after Lincoln
second election-the time he was a
Hudson. went over there with
lot Of other fellows to see Lincoln 6
through. And l recollect we took
bottle along. Yes, was pretty we
corned up that time. had the bottl
when Lincoln came in.
"'How're ye. Abe, l yells, wavin
both hands. one holding the bottl'
too.
"He waved back, laughed and sal
something. don't know what, thoug
I've studied over 1t lots Of times.
wish I'd heard 1t, for l bet you
cookie 1t was something good. H
used to get OF some pretty rich thing
"Barbering isn't trade-tts pr