The weekly chieftain. [volume] (Vinita, Craig County, Okla.) 1905-1913, 1912-06-28
BEST OF ALL BARRIERS
TO BE SHAVED BY AMERICAN NE.
GRO WAS A DELIGHT.
Entertaining, SklIful and Humorous,
He Has Been supplanted by tho
More 5usIness-LIke Modern
TonsoriaI Artist.

Inc tear OF regret may glisten for a
moment In the corner of the eye of
some elderly man when he revisits In
imagination the barber shop of long
ago. That was in the day when In
the middle west popular prejudice
neid fast to the opinion that the negro
was natural barber, the American
negro the best barber in the world.
he knows more about family trees
than any college of heraldry-if there
Is such an tnstitution-could possibly
know and how long and interesting
he would talk of your folks folks In
Lexington. Ky!
Let me rest yo' hat. and yo' coat.
sab. Yes. sir. Judge G. was heah this
mornin and Col. b. got out of the
cheer only few minutes ago"
With sigh of anticipated comfort
you sank into the chair and stretched
out your legs. Yes, sab, yo' really do
need shave, sah It's pleasure TO
me to shave you Yo' beard is Just
as 1t should be. Now and then get a
rough neck with squirrel whiskers
that upsets me TO a whole day"
Perhaps you may recall story in
an old text book about a very differ
ent kind of a barber, that began after
this fashion.
pIating barber who waited upon
a certain king, came one day to trim
bis hair and asked him: Sire. how
VIII you have 1t done?' Silently said
the king.
It Is not necessary to continue that |
story, the Indianapolis News remarks. |
one may know at once that the bar |
Der OF this churlish king was not a
negro. He was probably a mere ton
serial artist, wholly devoid of the de-
Hghtful charm OF entertaining that ia
possessed in so high a degree by the
Dlack knight of the razor-one might
now, alas. call him the disinherited
knight. as so many have come in tc
crowd him from his place.
only one superfluous question would
ne ask and that was from long estab-
llshed habit Does she pull, sah?"
Yet he well knew that In his sktllful
nand the keen blade was as light as
sossamer, for as he afterward ad-
nitted he had "honed and stropped her
Town ffner'n gnat's heel" How
ieftiy he would spread the cool lather
'yer the rough and razorabIe cheek
ind chin! With what tender care be
IVoided the wart that nestled on your
lpper lip, close to your nose. and
lever say a word about this bIemisb
n very handsome face!
But you did not get out of the chair
any such brief time as this tale Q
as required in its telling. By no {
leans. How he would daily about a
ou, comb and shears in hand. clin. 1
ing here and there an infinitesjmal !
1t of hair which, in his critical iudg. S
ent, spoilt the symmetry of his b
ork And, at last, as though loath r
let you go until his sense OF the C
erection OF his work had been salts. Il
ed In every artistic detail. he would
III detain you for last lingering re- S,
etIui inspection, following you to n
le door and watching your shadow as h
lengthened in the afternoon sun. II
What genial humor he had. what pl
knowledge of human nature, white m
ia Dlack? The newspaper. even then 10
as Well enough In its way, but not
De compared as a news teller to m
m who gave the gossip of the dear
Town with a racy flavor and pic
rescue beauty that proclaimed the
aster. The new barber has finer -
op and sometimes foreign accent :, -
more matter OF fact and business. g..
e, eandidly. you know be IL 80
well he's not the old barber ~ -