Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 273, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 November 1913 — The Tip-Trust [ARTICLE]

The Tip-Trust

When Charies Marwick resigned a |BOOO a year clerical position with the United States government,to accept a sls a week fob as barber In the ton serial parlors of a down-town hotel! the wonder of his friends amounted to a strong suspicion of Marwick’s sanity. It waa a great come-down, not only in his salary, but in his sooiaj status as well.

An intimate friend approached him one noon In regard to the matter and Informed Mm that a reasonable explanation for the change would not only satisfy a growing curiosity, bat 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 ft 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 exceptions to the politics of the administration. You haven’t been removed, either, as you have always been a 100 per cent man. Come —tell a friend —what la it? Perhaps the boys oan adjust it.” Marwick lit a cigar and thoughtfully studied the first few puffs of smoke. "11l tell you,” he finally yielded. "You see, I want to get into business 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.” "Can’t believe a word of it!” blurted the friend. "There’s some deeper purpose In your act, and, besides, how the deuce and when the deuce did you learn to shave and cut hair?” “Night school, of course! Best night school In the city. Cut hair for nothing, hut the last beggar gave me a 10 cent tip. ■_ Said it was the finest haircut he ever had.” "Well, I wish J&m luck,” sighed the friend, who was confident now that Marwick’s mentality had received a wrench, and that the man was more tor 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 position to follow the trade of tonßorial artist, he certainly had not been mistaken In hla 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 hts former position, and a couple of yeans after he had taken to the tonsorial field It waa learned that he acquired full title to a valuable piece of Forty-second street real estate. His friends laid their heads together—heads that Marwick had lately shaved and sheared to perfection—and tried to figure out how he had accomplished 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 and his employer ended with the former suddenly disappearing from sight and the latter publishing his late employee’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 every patron he had shaved, or whose hair he had cut, had tipped him moat liberally, and the total of these tips had reached a fortune In a very short time. He had located the nerve of generosity, or tip-nerve, and only the quarrel with his employer, perhaps over the sharing of hla liberal feet, had his well-laid plans. However, the loaa was not long hla, for a short time thereafter a number of tonsorial piriors were opened aimuL t&neousJty throughout the city, and although none of hla former friends could locate Charles Marwick, It was soon evident that he had intrusted his secret knowledge to a select dam of barber confederates and that ha was at the head of a tonsorial tip-trust, as profitable as any other favored trust —Ola Victoria Gould.