Evening star., 1943-07-24

shee and leg Of leprechaun when
an American friend rushed In the
door, grabbed me by the arm, and
said, Come with me as fast as you
can If you want to see the darned-
est sight you ever saw"
Still chewing on mouthful OF
banshee, I tore out Of the hotel ex-
pecting nothing short Of 10-alarm
fire or a riot or an introduction to
the original Pat and Mike. Much to
my surprise my friend led me into
barber shop, sat me down In a
BARRIERS chair and said, you're
going to get haircut whether you
need it or not. You can't afford to
miss this, Brother"
I was mystif1ed, but not for long.
My barber Strengthened me in my
chair and the other BARRIERS
Strengthened the other customers in
the long line of chairs. Suddenly
the head barber. from over in a
corner Of the room, cried, Ready"
and his underlings, standing behind
us in the chairs, nodded in assent.
Then all hell broke loose over QUE
heads as the head barber pulled
master switch.
Didn't Dare Look Up.
For a second I didn't dare look
up, so certain was I that between
me and the ceiling Spitfires, PATS,
Messerschmitts and Focke-Wul
were dog fighting for air supremacy
in that barber shop. There was the
whine of motors, the whirl Of high
powered machinery, clanking and
clattering, all of which was really
frightening.
I dared to look upward, and out
of complicated jumble of machin-
cry recognized hair brush de-
scending slowly toward my head. I
took look at the other chairs to
see if I were the only victim of this
barber shop version of Poe's pit
and the Pendulum" But wasn't.
Over each chair, attached to a
steel arm, brush lowered. I was
rigid with curiosity now. The bristles
touched the top of my head and
there was lul in the noise above.
I took advantage Of this to take
look at the contrivance. A long
steel arm stretched over all the
chairs. And, from this steel arm
came smaller arms with large hair
brushes attached to them.
Just as I was trying to recall
when Rube Goldberg had last Wis
tied Belfast the head barber yanked
another lever and the brushes
started brushing at clip that would
shame a shuttle In a loom. My
brush would tear across the top of
my head, pause for a split second.
and tear back. The brushes all
worked at the same level 50 that
the tall customers had to crouch
and the short ones had to strain
upward.
Kept Head Steady.
The non-existent customers in
the vacant chairs got just as thor
ough a brushing as those of us who
were present. 1t was like getting a
massage in combination OF Dante's
Inferno" and the Willow Run
bomber plant.
At first was a bit leery of mov-
ing my head slightly in any direc-
tion lest I get it out of line and
get the daylights knocked out of
me by the brush. Lift a little too
high and the thing would be sure
to crack you In the back of the
head as it drove forward, or brain
you good on its backward sweep.
But my barber was a master of
the mechanical hair brush. With a
little push he would turn my head
so that 1t would get brushed on the
side. With another push he would
tilt it forward so that it would get
brushed in the back. I came to have
complete confidence In the man be-
fore the lever was pulled and the
brushes assembled to the ceiling to
await another batch Of victims.
May add that I did not stay for
shave and haircut for fear knives
and razors and scissors would de-
Scend in the same fantastic man.
ner to do their work.
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