THE BARBER AND THE LAST MAN.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 6286, 17 September 1898, Page 6

THE BARBER AND THE LAST MAN.

There were five of us hunting and fishing in the Queensland bush, when one rainy day a stranger -appeared. He said he was a. tramp • barber, and as none of us had been shaved ; for a fortnight, we gave him half a day's work. About four hours after he had left us, a band of sis men rode up, and the leadei enquired if we had seen a tall, roughly- I .*' Pressed man pass that way. We told him • of the barber, and he looked from man to » man and exclaimed ; ■ ■ ■ *■• ♦ "•Good gracious, but you are- all freshly-;: shaved!" . : ' " Yes, we gave the barber a job." • " And heshaved each one of you?" "He-did, and did it well." "Boys, do you hear that?", shoutqd the > > man, as he turned to his companions. " What of it?" asked one of our party. ""Why, he went insane yesterday, and cut a man's throat in . his barber's chair ovex , at Unadilla, and we're after him to put him in an asylum." They rode away at a gallop, and next > mDmjng-Eeturned to our camp with 'the man, who had been captured after a hard fight, and was tied on his horse. He seemed to remember us when he was given a drink oi ■ water, and. as he handed the cup back he quietly observed: <f I say,, gentlemen, please excuse me. I meant to finish off the last man who got shaved, but I got to thinking of something , else, and it-slipped my mind !"