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Show THE TONSORIAL I TIP-TRUST 1 When Charles Marwick resigned a $3,000 a year clerical position with the United States government to accept a $15 a week job as barber in the ton-sorial ton-sorial parlors of a down-town hotel, the wonder of his friends amounted to a strong suspicion of Warwick's sanity. It was a great come-down, not only in his salary, but in his social status as well. An intimate friend approached him, one noon, in regard to the matter and informed him that a reasonable explanation ex-planation for the change would not only satisfy a growing curiosity, but would save his act from reaching the ears of the fool-killer. Marwick's answer was to offer his friend a cigar and inquire if he thought it was going to shower. "Come, come," remonstrated the friend. "This isn't the way to put yourself straight. You were under civil service, so it can't be because you've taken exception to the politics of the administration. You haven't been removed, either, as you have always al-ways been a 100 per cent. man. Come - tell a friend what is it? Perhaps the boys can adjust it." "I'll tell you," Marwick finally yielded. yield-ed. "You see, I want to get into business busi-ness for myself, and the barber trade isn't a bad business after all. A few years' experience in a first-class shop and I'll be ready to open my own parlors." par-lors." "Don't believe a word of it!" blurt ed the friend. "There's some deeper purpose in your act, and, besides, how and when did you learn to shave and cut hair?" "Night school, of course! Best night school in the city. Cut hair for nothing, but the last beggar gave me a ten-cent tip. Said it was the first hair cut he ever had." "Well, I wish you luck," sighed the friend who was confident now that Marwick's mentality had received a wrench, and that the man was more to. be pitied than censured. "I'll drop around whenever I'm in your locality and let you try your hand on me." 'But when he had reached the street again this friend shook his head. "No, sir! he shan't ever get me under his razor. I prefer crazy men as poets not barbers." The advice of his many friends did not turn Marwick from his new course, and before long those friends had to admit that while he had been unwise in giving up a well-paid government gov-ernment position to follow the trade ,of tonsorial artist, he certainly had not been mistaken in his ability to shave and cut hair. His handling of both scissors and razor was faultless, and soon he was the most popular man in the shop. Within four months the proprietor of the parlors voluntarily doubled his salary, which, with the liberal tips he was known to receive, was not bad pay. Then he saved more, too, than in his former position, and a couple of years after he had taken to the tonsorial field it was learned that he acquired full title to a valuable piece of Forty-second Forty-second street real estate. His friends laid their heads together to-gether heads that Marwick had lately shaved and sheared to perfection and tried to figure out how he had accomplished ac-complished this financial marvel. "He gets pointers on the market from some of those Wall street brokers," was the most satisfactory of these conjectures. This explanation held for a while, then a violent quarrel between Marwick Mar-wick and his employer ended with the former suddenly disappearing from sight and the latter publishing his late employe's secret. It seems Marwick had found that by a peculiar manipulation of the head he could excite the stingiest man to the extreme pitch of generosity, consequently conse-quently every patron he had shaved, or whose hair he had cut, had tipped him most liberally, and the total of these tips had reached a fortune in a very short time. He had located the nerve of generosity, gen-erosity, or tip-nerve, and only the quarrel quar-rel with his employer, perhaps over the sharing of his liberal fees, had upset up-set his well-laid plans. However, the loss was not long his, for a short time thereafter a number of tonsorial parlors par-lors were opened simultaneously throughout the city, and though none of his former friends could locate Charles Marwick, it was soon evident that he had entrusted his secret knowledge knowl-edge to a select class of barber confederates con-federates and that he was at the head of the tonsorial tip-trust, as profitable as any other favored trust. |