Part 1

PART FIRST Barbers' Manual PART SECOND Text Book on Taxidermy

By T. J. McConnaughay

PRICE, $1.25

Copyrighted and all rights reserved by author. Chicago, Ill., 1898.

Preface.

By way of explaining the dual character of this little book, we here indulge a few brief introductory remarks.

Part First is designed simply as a manual of instruction for barbers, and we hope it will, in a valuable measure, supply a long felt need. It will prove especially beneficial to the younger and less experienced members of our craft.

The best artisans and artists admit they owe much to the accumulated knowledge and experience of both their predecessors and their contemporaries. Indeed, to assert any claim to advanced knowledge and skill, without due acknowledgements for the help received from others would savor of an inexcusable egotism. The man who professes to be a self-made man is always notorious for worshiping his maker.

We should, of course, always put our own impress upon all our work. Our observations on the methods of others should supplement but not supplant our own originality and our own reason. A noted artist when asked how he mixed his paints to achieve such wonderful results, replied: “I mix them with brains.”

So must we use our own brains as well as the brains of others, if we would succeed in this day of rapid improvements and sharp competition.

The information given in this book is not guess work, but the result of long years of study and practice. Thirty-one years have I conducted a shop of my own. During these years every recipe here given has been thoroughly tested. We know they are all good.

Part Second is devoted to taxidermy, which for twenty-three years I have connected with my other shop work. I have preserved and sold hundreds of specimens, and this work has proven a source of much pleasure and profit, enabling me to turn many otherwise idle moments into money.

On this line I have not confined myself to taxidermic work alone, but have also connected the tanning of hides with the hair on, which I have manufactured into mats, rugs, etc.

Hence this little book, under a twofold title, practically includes three trades.

We offer it as a money saving and money making investment. The recipes and other information contained herein will enable any barber to make all his own preparations, and to manufacture them for sale. He may also connect taxidermy and tanning if it suit his pleasure and business.

Historic Sketch.

The word barber is derived from the Latin word “barba,” which means beard, and hence is applied to one whose occupation is to shave and trim beards and cut hair. The barber's craft is a very ancient one. The practice of shaving was common among the ancient Egyptians, Greeks and Romans; and was even mentioned by the prophet Ezekiel, chapter v, 1st verse. Among the ancient Israelites the removal of the beard by shaving or plucking was a sign of mourning. It would seem that the origin of our trade was prehistoric.

In early times barbering was conjoined with surgery, and the barber also served the public in the capacity of surgeon. In France the barber-chirurgeons, or barber-surgeons, were separated from the perruquiers, or wig-makers, and were incorporated as a distinct body in the latter part of the 17th century. In England barbers were incorporated with special privileges in 1461, and were afterwards united to the society of surgeons, but were confined to the minor operations of blood letting and drawing teeth. In 1745 an act was passed, the preamble of which declared the trade of the barber and the profession of surgery are foreign to and independent of each other.

This act practically divorced surgery from the barber's chair. However, quite recently the surgeons of the Swedish navy were also barbers for the crew. In former times, not far remote, it was customary to keep a lute or a violin for the entertainment of patrons, which made the shop a favorite resort for idle persons. In China and some other oriental countries, barbers not only shave the face, but they also shave the whole or a part of the head.

BARBER'S SIGN.

Though barbering is now entirely separated from surgery, yet a monument of their former union may be still seen in the striped pole and basin so often projecting from the front of barber shops.

The fillet, or spiral strip around the pole symbolizes the winding of a ribbon round the arm previous to letting blood, and its red color symbolizes the blood. The basin, yet sometimes seen at the base, represents a vessel prepared to catch the blood.

Barber's poles in this country are tri-colored. The white symbolizes the arm, the red represents the shed blood, while Americans have added the blue to complete our national colors.

Recipes, Formulas, Etc.

GERMAN HAIR DYE.

The process here given comprehends a double formula, and to insure satisfactory results, the directions subjoined should be carefully followed.

No. 1.

Nitrate of Silver 3 drachms Stronger Water of Ammonia ½ ounce Distilled or Rain Water ½ ounce