By way of explaining the dual character of this little book, we here indulge a few brief introductory remarks.

Part First is designed simply as a manual of instruction for barbers, and we hope it will, in a valuable measure, supply a long felt need. It will prove especially beneficial to the younger and less experienced members of our craft.

The best artisans and artists admit they owe much to the accumulated knowledge and experience of both their predecessors and their contemporaries. Indeed, to assert any claim to advanced knowledge and skill, without due acknowledgements for the help received from others would savor of an inexcusable egotism. The man who professes to be a self-made man is always notorious for worshiping his maker.

We should, of course, always put our own impress upon all our work. Our observations on the methods of others should supplement but not supplant our own originality and our own reason. A noted artist when asked how he mixed his paints to achieve such wonderful results, replied: “I mix them with brains.”

So must we use our own brains as well as the brains of others, if we would succeed in this day of rapid improvements and sharp competition.

The information given in this book is not guess work, but the result of long years of study and practice. Thirty-one years have I conducted a shop of my own. During these years every recipe here given has been thoroughly tested. We know they are all good.

Part Second is devoted to taxidermy, which for twenty-three years I have connected with my other shop work. I have preserved and sold hundreds of specimens, and this work has proven a source of much pleasure and profit, enabling me to turn many otherwise idle moments into money.

On this line I have not confined myself to taxidermic work alone, but have also connected the tanning of hides with the hair on, which I have manufactured into mats, rugs, etc.

Hence this little book, under a twofold title, practically includes three trades.

We offer it as a money saving and money making investment. The recipes and other information contained herein will enable any barber to make all his own preparations, and to manufacture them for sale. He may also connect taxidermy and tanning if it suit his pleasure and business.