St. Landry Democrat

HARD TO SHAVE.

A Washington Tonsorial Artist Talks About Some Prominent Men.

[Carp, in Cleveland Leader.]

I dropped into a barber's chair the other night for a shave. The young colored man who handled the razor was a character. He told me that he shaved many of the prominent men of the country. Said he: Speaker Carlisle is a hard man to shave. He has an angular, rough-bearded face. He drops into a chair, and does not say a word until he gets out of it, except when he is afraid of being cut. "Did you ever shave a President?" I inquired. "No. But I used to go over Hendricks' face every day or two. Vice-President Hendricks was a very hard man to keep clean. It took a long time, too, to shave him, but he was such a good talker, and told so many stories, that I never noticed how the time was passing. The last time he was here Postmaster-General Vilas came with him, and he kept telling anecdotes to him between the sweeps of the razor. I have shaved Dan Voorhees, too, at times. Voorhees has one of those red and gray, coarse beards, which is very hard to cut. He is very particular as to his personal appearance and considers himself a dandy. Governor Curtin has a national reputation as being the worst man in the country to shave. His beard is very hard and it runs all sorts of ways. The hairs overlap each other and have no regularity whatever. All the barbers about Washington know him, and some of them will make an excuse to get out of the shop when he comes in. Bancroft comes here to get his hair cut, but he oftener has us come to his house for this purpose. He likes to talk while we are dressing his head, but you have to work very carefully with him. He is getting old and is liable to be out of humor at times."