Tonsorial Tantrums

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 94, 15 January 1935, Page 11

Tonsorial Tantrums

Sir,—l can remember reading “Strewelpeter’s” first letter and thinking that some vainglorious foreigner was determined to humiliate an honourable body of men because he had been peeved with his first tonsorial contact. His amusing hyperbole and pungent sarcasm, imitated by some of his sympathisers, indicate a poverty of argument associated with a determination to gain a point at the expense of veracity. It speaks well for the urbanity of some of your barber correspondents that they look on “Strewelpeter” as “a jolly good humorist.” A man who claims to have rubbed shoulders with the world at large • should have acquired more of this “suaviter in modo,” but the extremely self-centred can never master a mode of thought that does not contribute to their self-importance. Perhaps “Strewelpeter” is really not such a terrible fellow as his bark indicates, but it is obvious that he has not acquired any of the Polonia! homeliness. Many of these globe-trotters spend their lives in flitting from one hotel lounge to another, and much of their philosophy is absorbed from lounge lizards and others with a cheap sophistication. These are the birds who fly to Auckland for a haircut. and perchance to Vladivostok for a shave and Yokohama for a face massage. Well, perhaps our local barbers could tell them where to go for a hair singe. In the chromium-plated saloons of Queen Street, the Mecca of the faddists, I have known the “artists” to show an impudent annoyance if a client resisted their salesmanship of a singe, shampoo and fac.'e massage,—l am, etc., DIG. Wellington, January J.l.