“I must interrupt the routine to tell you something about the innovation in barbering,” remarked the old lady, reaching for a paper in her pocketbook.
“Let’s see, it occurred in A. D. 1951, that an old chemist made a discovery. He ascertained that by a concoction of sage, sulphur and some other ingredients hair can be removed from the face efficaciously and as clean as a barber could shave you. The preparation was made up into some kind of a soap and the lather applied to the whiskers and allowed to remain for three minutes when it was washed off with clean water. This process removed hair from the face without injury to the skin, doing away entirely with the services of a tonsorial artist. It is a wonderful discovery, but it had the bad effect of putting a number of good men out of business.”
“I wonder how this discovery affected my friend, Frank Rogers?” I asked.
“Well,” was the reply, “this occurred in 1951 and I expect that Frank was not caring much for the barber business then, as he got rich in the business prior to that time.”
Continuing, the old lady said, “There are now not any more tonsorial apartments than existed in A. D. 1913 and the sphere of usefulness of that kind of talent is confined to hair cutting, massaging and such like.”
The world wags on. “Why,” continued my visitor, “you can leave your measure for a pair of shoes to order and you may come back in 10 minutes and find them all ready to take away with you. The same can be said about getting a suit of clothes which takes just 60 minutes to construct and be ready for wear.”
“Who’s in the banking business that I know, away off there on the verge of time?” I asked of my companion.
“Oh, there are many whom you know,” was her reply. “At least, you will remember the names of many. Ladd & Tilton still conduct their business and I notice a number of the name of Ladd connected with the institution as I take it that the estate is still in the banking business.
“Then there is First National Bank with many familiar names like Corbett, Failing, Alvord, Newkirk, which indicates that the new generation are a branch of the former tree.
“I notice that the Security & Trust Company have officials bearing the names of Adams, Jubitz, Lee and others, but as they are all young men, they must be a later generation than you know. The same is the case with the United States National Bank, where the present officials bear such names as Ainsworth, Barnes and Schmeer. Yes, new generation, too. We have the Merchants’ National Bank, Durhams, Hoyts, Watson’s can be heard giving instructions from the different desks but they, too, don’t belong to your time.”