IT IRRITATES A QUIET CUSTOMER AND CAUSES A SCENE.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume X, Issue 24, 17 June 1893, Page 576

IT IRRITATES A QUIET CUSTOMER AND CAUSES A SCENE.

The bald-headed man, with four days’ growth of beard on his chin, went into a barber’s shop and sat down in one of the operating chairs. To him presently went a knight of the razor, who remarked, interrogatively : ‘ Shave, sir ?’ • No,’ growled the man in the chair, • I want to be measured for a suit of clothes. ’ This statement seemed to surprise the barber, but he managed to say : • This isn’t a tailor’s shop, sir. • Isn’t it?’ ‘No, sir.’ ‘ What is it ?’ ‘ It’s a barber’s shop.’ « What sort of work do you do in this shop ? ‘ Shave men and cut their hair, sir.’ ‘Do you think a man with no hair on his head would come in here to have his hair cut?’ • No, sir.’ ‘ Do I look like a lunatic ?’ This was replied by a silent shake of the head, but the barber doubtless thought he was acting like one. ‘ Then, presuming me to be a sane man, but bald-headed, what would you naturally suppose I came here for ?’

‘For a shave.’ ‘ Then, dear sir, why did you ask me if I wanted a shave when I took a seat in your chair ? Why didn’t you go to work at once? If some of you barbers would cultivate a habit of inferring, from easily ascertained data, instead of developing such wonderful conversational and catechetical powers, itwould be of material aid in advancing you in your chosen vocation and of expanding your profits. Do yon comprehend ?’ ‘ Yes, sir,’ replied the man as he began to lather the customer’s face in a dazed sort of way, and he never even asked him if he wanted oil on his hair when the operation was performed.

OUR office boy was holding an improving conversation with the Helping Hand boy. ‘ You know my dog Barca and your cat Darling ?’ he said. ‘Yes.’ ‘ Well, my dog had a piece of meat, and he thought your cat was going to take it away from him.’ ‘ Thought !’ exclaimed the Heining Hand boy. ‘ What makes you say the dog thought? You know dogs don’t think —it was instinct.’ ‘ Well,’ said the boy, ‘ I don’t know whether he thought it or whether heinstincted it, but anyhow, your cat’s dead.’