Evening Star Newspaper, December 1, 1929, Page 40

PREFERS AMERICAN BARBERS Visiting Englishman Declares Tonsorialist Happily Ceaseless Chatter of British Missing From Glass- Front Shop Here. Chatter from a barber is still chatter, Delteres that the Washington barber is naturally reticent. Perhaps he has been forced to yleld his “rights” to the gentle- men on Capitol Hill Mz, Perry. holder of the Waiter Hines Page fellowship, 15 a subeditor of Reuters in London. BY ALFRED P. PERRY. 1 like these Washington barbers. They | do not feel it their duty to keep up a| ceaseless chatter to drown the click, | click of the shears. They will reply| courteously to any oObservation you may chonose to make, and even venture a discreet suggestion of their own. But there they stop unless it pleases you to lead them further in the conversation. Contrariwise, the London barber is a babbling brook. He starts flowing as soon as you get into the chair. His opening gurgle is almost always the same: “Very fine (or wet) morning, sir!" Probably it has been shining (or raining) for the past three days and looks like going on for a week. But if you are green to the game you assent courteously to this daring ob- servation and get a nip of the scissors for your pains. ‘Then he tries horse racing, of which you may know nothing and care less. #1 see Twinkletoes is odds on for the :30, p* g!ou say “what?” and get r ear gashed. W"l"ms seems to discourage him, and for a few minutes he holds his tongue. Then the sight of blood rev his memory, and off he starts again. “Ter- rible affair, that in Chicago, sir!” “Terrible!” you reply, not having the least idea of what he is talking about, but hoping for the best. “Yes, sir, I had an aunt by marriage who lived in Chicago for many ye: This in- formation thrills u. sir, she came over here for a time, but she got kind o’ lonesome without the bombs. ‘Wonderful 'ow you misses things, isn't it, sir? I remember I 'ad a pet canary once...what did you say, sir? Oh, did I nip you? Very sorry, sir!” How to Stop Him. ‘There is but one way to quell a Lon- don barber on the warpath. The secret may be useful to American visitors, so| I offer it free to all. As soon as you settle down into the chair open a news- paper and meet all his sallies with a t. The paper seems to discourage with the more copicus chatter of Alfred P. Perry. too much introspection. I suspect that the ancient Greek King who would allow none but his daugh- ters to shave him was trying really to dagger. True, his order that the ung ladies should use a red-hot poker Esmd of a razor to remove his beard | geems somewhat odd. But to judge | from some barbers I have known, he may well have felt no difference! This fear of being slaughtered in a shave recalls to mind the only barber who has strutted as a villain on the He was Mr. Sweeny This gentleman really lived more than 8 hundred vears ago in Fleet street, London, which is now famous as the heart of the British newspaper world. For many years he talked and pros- gered as he shaved the chins of lazy urghers and tied the powdered locks of local mashers. But gradually ugly tales began to get about—how strangers had gone into his shop and never been seen to come out and how Mr. Todd alxways kept his window blinds drawn close. The Law Steps In. At last the officers of the law raided the house and Sweeny Todd's dread secret was revealed. In his shop was a special chair in which he always shaved rich-looking customers who were not known in the neighborhood. Beneath this chair was a secret trap door which opened when a hidden bolt was drawn and tipped the customer neatly on his head into a stone cellar 12 feet below, where the genial barber could pick his pockets at leisure. The bodies were a difficulty at first, but Mr. Todd was a smart chapple. He cut them up and sold them cheap to an old hag who kept a pastrycook’s next door. Such a story was too good to be over- looked for long by enterprising writers of blood-curdling “thrillers” for the stage. So many a London audience has shuddered joyfully at the fiendish ' chuckle of the demon barber and his | sinister “I'll soon polish you off, sir!” to v looking customers in a hurry. 1 do not know whether Washington ever has had a demon barber. The fact that most barbers here seem to do their work in glass-fronted saloons look- ing straight onto the sidewalk makes me doubt it very much. It is so difh- cult to avoid ill-natured gossip if you - | cut a man's throat while a crowd ot and peanut vendors are gap- But a newsbo; ing through the window! | way, I would rather be “polished off” by’ | a Washington barber than by my Lou- don friends: for at least I would not have to listen to his chat about tne weather before he dispatchéd me to a warmer clime. BRAZIL, ALAR.MED AT GAS IMPORTS, MAY SEEK OIL Economists Urge Government to Prospect Nation to Keep Money at Home. By the Associated Press. RIO DE JANEIRO, November 30.— Economists are alarmed at the increase in gasoline imports here. They are alarmed, too, at the conse- quent flow of money to foreign coun- tries, mostly to the United States, and are urging the government to seek ofl in Brazil. Imports of gasoline have increased 200 per cent in five years. In 1924 there were imported 89,303 tons, and in 1928 the total reached 254,324 tons. This last amount necessitated the pay- ment of more than $12,000,000 to for- eign companies. President Washington Luis is pledged to a program of highway construction and two important roads have been built, one connecting Rio with Petrop- olis—the Summer capital—and the oth- er between Rio and Sao Paulo, a dis- tance of more than 300 miles. Other -roads have been constructed in states distant from the capital for the purpose of using motor trucks in- stead of paying the high freight rates charged by railroads. e e Dog Tries to Warm Dead Miner. COBALT, Ontario, November 30 (). . | —Boxer is a shaggy sheep dog, faithful to his master even unto death. At the Ahultain Mine, 8 miles from Gow- prospector and caretaker, to keep him warm. Fletcher died a few hours later of pneurnonia. W. B. Moses & Sons Public Confidence Since 1861 F Street at Eleventh Radio Section, Lower Floor—Di 9 A. M.to 6 P.M. irect Entrance at 11th Street SLOGANS With a Meaning— “Mighty Monarch of the Air” “Backed by mosgg Service” THAT’S THE NEW y Majeslic NOW AT THE - LOWEST PRICE EVER ONLY 5116 Less Tubes Power Detection and the new—45 tubes. Absolutely no hum or oscillation at any wave length. Automatic sensitivity control gives uniform range and power all over the dial. Improved Majestic Super-Dynamic Speaker. Early English de- sign cabinet of American walnut. Instrument panel overlaid with genuine im- rted Australian Lacewood. utcheon plate and knobs finished in genuine silver. SMALL DOWN PAYMENT And Only Liberal Trade-In 2 WEEKLY DELIVERS IT TO YOUR HOME Allowance Made ‘) on Your Old Radio or Phonograph THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C, DECEMBER 1, 1929—PART TWO, SALVAGE WORKERS DIE FROM POISON FUMES Gases Escaping From Hold of Wrecked Liner Bring Death to Two Men. By the Associated Press. COBH, Irish Free State, November | 30.—Poisonous fumes, which had ac- cumulated in No. 4 hold of the wrecked and abandoned liner Celtic, yesterday killed three salvage workers and gravely gassed two others. Several other workmen recovered in a short time from the effects of the gas. The men were climbing down a ladder when overcome and they fell into the hold. The British destroyer Seawolf sent a launch with nurses and doctors in answer to a radio appeal for help. Meanwhile other workmen wearing gas masks entered the hold and brought the injured to the deck. Two of those at first thought dead later recovered in a hospital here. ‘The White Star liner Celtic ran on jagged rocks near the entrance to this harbor while attempting to make port through a thick fog on December 10. for months salvage workers had been stripping the hull of all valuable ma- | terials. ANCIENT SOLD SALVE. | Roman Made Patent Medicines in 1100 A.D. LONDON, November 30 Man Lucius Julius made patent eye Magazine Racks, $2.75 to $17.50. 1928. Efforté to refloat her failed and | medicines and advertised his wares. The canny Roman got there before the mar- ket was overcrowded, for he operated 1,800 years ago. A relic of his business has been dug up in Moorgate, London. It is an at- tractive little pot of the bright red ware | that is known as “Samian,” and on it there is a two-line Latin inscription {mac reads: “Old Man Lucius Julius’ salve for sore eyes.” When the British matron of the |period of the Roman occupation had finished the salve she used the pot for one of a thousand household purposes. Presumably the old fellow was a Lon- don druggist, but his pots must have come from Gaul, as Samian ware was never made in Britain. | In native parts of Africa under Brit- witeh doctors, still exists. HETHER it’s for the enjoyment of an U. S. CULTURE DEFENDED. Irish Chie? Justice Lauds Ameri- can Influence. DUBLIN, November 30 (#).—Amer- | lcan culture found a stanch defender in Hugh Kennedy, K. C., the Irish Free | State chief justice, who visited the United States last year. | He told the Solicitors’ Apprentice So- ciety here that the critics who deplore the influence of American culture on | 1Westem Europe knew nothing of Amer- ca. | _“Critics of America take their im- | pressions from the current talk in Eng- |lish newspapers and from books which achieye the distinction of best sellers by the easy method of attacking some- (A).—Old | ish rule, “ju-ju,” the “magic” of the thing he sald. “It would be just as wrong to judge America by the novels of Sinclair Lewis as to judge Ireland by Joyce's ‘Ulysses.’ M. P. Raps Hollywood Graduates. LONDON, November 30 (#).—In the | opinion of Rev. R. Sorensen, Labor | Member of Parliament, boys and girls | employed in the cinemas are graduated | | from Hollywood University with first- | class honors in vulgarity. And so he is urging a bill limiting the hours of em- | ployment for minors. E |Bremen to Take dhriltmus Load. Santa Claus is going across the pond in | the fastest ship. The Bremen, which holds the transatlantic speed record,| will leave December 14 with the last| gifts that will reach the other side byi Christmas. a OIL INVESTORS LOSE. End of Australian Boom Featured by Stock Declines. SYDNEY, Australia, November 30 (#). —Last year's “oil boom” has left many speculators poorer, sadder and wiser. Shares which were rushed at $60 are now hard to sell at $3. ‘What sent the stock up was the an- nouncement that motor cars at Roma— the seat of the principal bore in a NEW YORK, November 30 (#).— ['BTOuD of about 20 that were sumk *5 that region of South Queenslana—were running on ofl produced from the gas that was issuing from the earth. The existence of the gas was accepted as proof that the ofl was near. It may be, but it has not yet materialized. 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