The Republican., 1963-08-01
The Man With
The Green Mustoche
RY pr. Wn. w. Grant


how many of the beautiful young
ladies know the origins of the
preparations which they put on
their hair. Actually, many of the
preparations have as one of their
basic ingredients hair dye formulas
that were devised by German and
American chemists during the lat
ter part Of the 1800's. The original
purpose of the dyes was to i'm
prove the color Of mems mustaches
and boards, not to change the
color Of Women's hair. During
those days, a woman who dyed
her hair was considered rather
"brazen."
AS you might expect. much of
the touch up work on the mus
taches and boards was done in the
barber shops Among the numer-
Gus bottles Of hair tonic, a person
could also see a selection of diff
fercnt colored hair dyes to meet
the customers needs. The barber
would select the particular color
which was required TO touch up
the mustache and very carefully
apply it to the hairs that needed
to be colored.
Since the dyes that were used
were produced BY different com
panies. the barber had to be very
careful about the strength of a
particular dye so that lhere would
be no streaking of the color.
AT the time the "mustache in
cident" occurred. l was a young
man working in Harneds Drug
Store, and was the only one in the
store at the time. A colored boy
Of about eighteen or twenty years
came into the store He worked
as shoe shine boy in the barber
shop that was situated in the store
room where Hubs Harness Shop
is now located. He asked me What
would remove muStache dye?" DR..
Ravenscroft came in about that
time and l consulted him. He rec
commended a solution of icdide of
potash. l made up the solution and
the boy left.
In a few minutes we heard the
worst commotion, and running to
the door we looked out just in
time to see an irate customer chas-
ing the colored bcy out the front
door of the barber shop. He stood
in the doorway coughing and shout
ing curses at the boy who stood
covering on the boardwalk about
thirty feet away Then the man
still shouting hurried into the al
ley. Later the owner of the shop
was able to piece together the
events that had caused the out
burst.
1t seems that the colored boy
was in the shop cleaning up when
a summer visitor came in and
seated himself in the barber chair.
This man was extremely large
and had a deep voice He was also
the type that when he wanted
something done it had to be at
tended to at once. He was very
desirous of having his mustache
touched up. When he learned that
the barber was not in and wouldn't
be for some time he ordered the
boy to Touch up my mustache".
The boy explained that he knew
nothing about touching up mus
tacheS He only shined shoes and
worked there This did not impress
the man and he demanded that
the brown muStache be touched
up. Surely the boy had seen it
done often enough! Unfortunately
the first try ended in a rather
odd shade of brown. This the Gus
toner said would never do and
for the boy to go ever to the drug
store and find out what would
remove dye.
When the boy returned with the
potash solution he applied it to
the mustache but being irexperi-
enced and not knowing the strength
Cf the dye he was as dismayed as
The man was angry, to see that the
touched up mustache was now a
lively shade of pink
Get it off, get it off" he shouted
to the flustered boy Remember
ing what he had been told to do
when dye was spilled on the floor
the boy grabbed large cloth and
duosed it with Household Ammonia.
Then he clamped the cloth over
the mans face and proceeded to
scrub the mustache with the
ammonia cloth. For about ten sec
onds there was a struggle during
which time the boy continued to
scrub the mustache of the protest
ing, struggling victim. Finally the
strangling man broke free of the
boys grasp and vaulted out of
the barber chair. As soon as he
could get his breath he proceeded
to chase the boy out Of the shop
cursing him at the top of his voice.
The man went back to pick up his
hat and then disappeared, for the
second time he had looked into