South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1919-02-20
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been occupying the attention Of
scientists for sometime. Lost mo-
ton may be defined as much I'M
necessary movement of persons and
things in the accomplishment of
some particular task or duty.
In the construction of machinery,
the maker devotes much attention
to the avoidance of lost motion in
the operation of the machinery.
There was q time when lost motion
was caused principally by ignorance
upon the part Of persons generally.
However, today, there is'one pro-
fession whose members cultivate
the art of lost motion. That pro-
fession is that of the barber. Any
one who gets shaved and has his
hair cut in an up-to-date. modern
ly appointed tonsorial establishment
will testify TO the truth of this
statement
For instance, an average barber
will spend two-thirds of his time in
shaving a victim in running his fin
gers over the face of the victim,
the fingers of the operator straying
most generally TO that part of the
victims face where the hair was
not intended by nature to grow.
The ordinary barber usually starts
his instrument at the top of the
right side Of the victims face and
proceeds in a downward course to
point opposite the mouth. This
point is reached by a series of more
or less jerky movements upon the
part Of the hand holding the in
strument, which is invariably a
razor. After the point on the right
side Of the face opposite to the cor
ner of the mouth is reached, the
razor goes off at an angle toward
the chin, then veers downward to
the throat, gliding over that part
of the body without making much
impression on the hirstute growth.
The operation is duplicated on
the other side of the victims face
and throat, except that the razor
goes in an upward course against
the grain of the beard instead of
with it. Then after the barber has
gone over all the face once begins
the lost motion. His fingers stray
around the nose, below the eyes and
around the ears, giving a peculiar
sensation all the time. The fingers
of the barber are supposed to be
searching for hair that has been
missed by the razor in its first trip.
But before the barber begins his
lingering process, which is followed
by a second voyage Of the razor over
the victims face, a series OF the not
test towels imaginable are placed
over the face, including the nose,
completely shutting off the breath
ing process of the man in the chair
Sometimes this towel process is re-
peated twice before the second
over" is begun, and it IS a very
poorly regulated barber shop these
DAYS that does not include hot
towel treatment as a first step in the
shaving process.
After the second over" is COM
pleted with it's attending finger
movements on barren places comes
some more hot towels, again com
pletely shutting off the act of breath
ing. After that there is some more
lingering. supposedly in search OF
hair that has been missed under
the ears, below the eyes or inside
the victims mouth, but long years
of watchful experience has failed
to witness one time where barber
ever found one hair that he hac
missed, not because the hair had
not been missed, but because the
BARRIERS fingers never stop Ions
enough to find it.
After that comes the witch haze
| in more or less quantities applied
to the patients face. This is sup
posed TO be a counter irritant to the
effects left by the razor. Their
comes a few minutes of heavy wip'
ing and drying, then some more
lingering and then some powder
Then some more lingering follows
the powder. Then the powder mus
be wiped off, and this wiping is fol
lowed by some more finger move
ments from the barber.
These finger movements continue
to the end of the seance, the fingers
touching heavily or lightly that par
of the face never intended by nature
TO be a hair growing base, the
heaviness or lightness depending en-
tirely upon the physical construc
ton of the particular barber.
! Then the process comes to an enc
with a parting lingering finger move
ment from the barber as h
smoothes down the eyebrows of tn
victim and runs a finger into hi
right ear TO complete the lost mo
ton. c. J. c.