BARBERS AREN’T GASBAGS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXVI, Issue 18531, 13 July 1922, Page 7

BARBERS AREN’T GASBAGS

There’s not much truth iu the, idea that, barbers are talkative persons. As a test of this, the writer went for his shaves to a different shop every day for a month, and found, that the average barber is either very reserved or just, chats like other business men when his customers start talking. Indeed, this round of visits iu widely-different districts and through a number of towns revealed the curious fact that it is invariably the customer and not the barber who talks. There are talkative barbers, of course. The barber who wants to chatter can always get an audience. But even if all barbers were fond of hearing their own voices there would be plenty of excuse lor them. The barber has to listen to so many people that he could always have plenty to talk about. He is the victim of countless bores, the butt of many wits, the receiver of a thousands confidences. More even than the clergyman is his finger on the pulse of the times. He knows the true extent of local poverty or wealth. The papers he provides in his saloon keep him well versed in current events’, and he hears and judges every phase of political opinion. So if he does feel like talking, don't blame him.