Dealings With The Dead Volume II Part 24

Cicero uses this expression in his fine oration against Verres, i 54--_digitum tollit Junius patruus--Junius, his paternal uncle, raised his finger_, that is, he made a bid.

The employment of a spear, as the signal of an auction sale, is supposed to have arisen from the fact, that the only articles, originally sold, in this manner, were the spoils of war. Subsequently, the spear--_hasta_--came to be universally used, to signify a _sale at auction_. The auction of Pompey's goods, by Caesar, is repeatedly alluded to, by Cicero, with great severity, as the _hasta Caesaris_. A pa.s.sage may be found, in his treatise, _De Officiis_, ii. 8, and another, in his eighth Philippic, sec.

3--"Invitus dico, sed dicendum est. Hasta Caesaris, Patres Conscripti, multis improbis spem affert, et audaciam. Viderunt enim, ex mendicis fieri repente divites: itaque hastam semper videre cupiunt ii, qui nostris bonis imminent; quibus omnia pollicetur Antonius." I say it reluctantly, but it must be said--Caesar's auction, Conscript Fathers, inflames the hopes and the insolence of many bad men. For they see how immediately, the merest beggars are converted into men of wealth. Therefore it is that those, who are hankering after our goods and chattels, and to whom Antony has promised all things, are ever longing to behold such another auction, as that.

The auctioneer's bell, in use, at the Hague, in 1760, was introduced into Boston, seventy-seven years ago, by Mr. Bicker, whose auction-room was near the Market. Having given some offence to the public, he inserted the following notice, in the Boston Gazette and Country Journal, Monday, April 18, 1774--"As the method, lately practised by the Subscriber, in having a Person at his Door, to invite Gentlemen and others to his public Sales--has given Dissatisfaction to some (Gentlemen Shopkeepers in particular) to avoid giving Offence for the future, he shall desist from that Practice, and pursue one (as follows) which he flatters himself cannot fail giving universal Satisfaction, as he sincerely wishes so to do. The Public are most earnestly requested to remember (_for their own advantage_) that, for the future, Notice will be given, by sounding a Bell, which he has purchased for that Purpose, which is erected over the Auction Room Door, near the Market, Boston, where constant Attendance is given both early and late, to receive the favors of all such who are pleased to confer on their _Much obliged, Most Obedient, and very humble Servant_, M. Bicker."

Albeit there is no less bickering or d.i.c.kering here now, than of yore, yet Bicker and his bell have gone, long ago, to the "receptacle of things lost upon earth." The very name is no more.

Haydn says, the first auction in Britain was about 1700, by Elisha Yale, a Governor of Fort George, in the East Indies, of the goods he had brought home with him. That Mr. Haydn must be mistaken is manifest, from the citation from Pepys, who speaks of auctions, by inch of candle, as early as 1660; and not then as a novelty, but the first of the kind that he had witnessed.

Fosbroke says, in his Antiquities, page 412--"In the middle age, the goods were cried and sold to the highest bidder, and the sound of a trumpet added with a very loud noise. The use of the spear was retained, the auctions being called _Subhastationes_; and the _Subhastator_, or auctioneer, was sworn to sell the goods faithfully. In Nares, we have, _sold at a pike or spear_, i. e. by public auction or outcry; and auctions called _port sales_, because originally, perhaps, sales made in ports--the crier stood under the spear, as in the Roman aera, and was, in the thirteenth century, called _cursor_."

Of late, _mock auctions_, as they are termed, have become a very serious evil, especially in the city of New York. In 1813 pet.i.tions, in regard to these public impositions, were sent to the Lords of the Treasury, from many of the princ.i.p.al cities of Great Britain. In 1818 a select committee reported, very fully, upon this subject, to the British Parliament. This committee, after long and critical investigation, reported, that great frauds were constantly committed on the public, by _mock_ or fraudulent _auctions_. The committee set forth several examples of this species of knavery. Goods are sold, as the furniture of gentlemen, going abroad. For this purpose, empty houses are hired for a few days, and filled with comparatively worthless furniture. Articles of the most inferior manufacture are made for the express purpose of being put into such sales, as the property of individuals of known character and respectability. To impose, more effectually, on the public, the names of the most respectable auctioneers have been used, with the variation of a letter. This bears some a.n.a.logy to the legislative change of name, in this city, for the purpose of facilitating the sale of inferior pianos. Respectable auctioneers have been compelled, in self-defence, to appear at such mock auctions, and disclaim all connection therewith. Great ma.s.ses of cutlery and plated ware of base manufacture, with London makers' names, and advertised, as made in London, are constantly sold, at these auctions; forcing the London makers to appear at the sales rooms, and expose the fraud.

The committee say that no imposition is more common than the sale of ordinary wine, in bottles, as the _bonne bouche_ of some respectable Amphitryon deceased.

They farther state, that daring men are known to combine, attend real sales, and by various means, drive respectable purchasers away, purchase at their own price, and afterwards privately sell, under a form of public sale, among themselves, at _Knock Out_ auctions, as they are called.

The committee recommended an entire revision of the auction laws--an increase of the license--heavier penalties for violation--no sale, without previous exposure of the goods for twenty-four hours, or printed catalogue--name and address of the auctioneer to be published--severe penalty, for using a fict.i.tious name, &c.

The whole advertising system of mock auctions, like that, connected with the kindred impostures of quackery and patent medicines, furnishes a vast amount of curious and entertaining reading; and affords abundant scope, for the exercise of a vicious ingenuity. I have heard of a horse, that could not be compelled, by whip or spur, to cross a bridge, which lay in the way to his owner's country residence--the horse was advertised to be sold at auction for no fault but that his owner was _desirous of going out of the city_.

No. CXL.

Few things are more difficult, than shaving a cold corpse, and making, what the _artistes_ call _a good job of it_. I heard Robert New say so, forty years ago, who kept his shop, at the north--easterly corner of Scollay's buildings. He said the barber ought to be called, as soon, as the breath was out of the body, and a little before, if it was a clear case, and you wished the corpse "_to look wholesome_." I think he was right. Pope's Narcissa said--

"One need not sure be ugly, though one's dead."

There is considerable mystery, in shaving a living corpse. I find it so; and yet I have always shaved myself; for I have never been able to overcome a strong, hereditary prejudice, against being taken by the nose.

My razor is very capricious; so, I suppose, is everybody's razor. There is a deep and mystical philosophy, about the edge of a razor, which seems to have baffled the most scientific; and is next of kin to witchcraft. A tract, by Cotton Mather, upon this subject, would be invaluable. The scholar will smile, at any comparison, between Pliny the elder and Cotton Mather. So far, as respects the scope of knowledge, and power of intellect, and inexhaustible treasures, displayed in Pliny's thirty-seven books of Natural History, one might as well compare Hyperion to a mummy. I allude to nothing but the _Magnalia_ or _Improbabilia_; and, upon this point of comparison, Mather, witchcraft and all fairly fade out of sight, before the marvels and fantastical stories of Pliny. In lib. xxviii. 23, Pliny a.s.signs a very strange cause, why _aciem in cultris tonsorum hebetescere_--why the edge of a barber's razor is sometimes blunted. The reader may look it up, if he will--it is better in a work, _sub sigillo latinitatis_, than in an English journal.

I have often put my razor down, regretting, that my beard did not spread over a larger area; so keenly and agreeably has the instrument performed its work. It really seemed, that I might have shaved a sleeping mouse, without disturbing his repose. After twelve hours, that very razor, untouched the while, has come forth, no better than a pot-sherd. The very reverse of all this has also befallen me. I once heard Revaillon, our old French barber, say, that a razor could not be strapped with too light a hand; and the English proverb was always in his mouth--"a good lather is half the shave."

Some persons suppose the razor to be an instrument, of comparatively modern invention, and barbers to have sprung up, at farthest, within the Christian era. It is written, in Isaiah vii. 20, "In the same day shall the Lord shave with a razor, that is hired," &c. Ezekiel began to prophecy, according to Calmet, 590 years before Christ: in the first verse of ch. v. he says--"take thee a sharp knife, take thee a barber's razor, and cause it to pa.s.s upon thy head and upon thy beard." To cause a razor _to pa.s.s upon the beard_ seems to mean something very different from _shaving_, in the common sense of that word. Doubtless, it does: the _culter_ or _novacula_, that is, _the razor_, of the ancients, was employed, for _shearing_ or _shortening_, as well as for _shaving_ the beard. Barbers were first known, among the Romans A. U. C. 454, i. e. 298 years before Christ. Pliny says, vii. 59--Sequens gentium consensus in tonsoribus fuit, sed Romanis tardior. In Italiam ex Sicilia venere post Romam conditam anno quadringentessimo quinquagessimo quarto, adducente P.

Ticinio Mena, ut auctor est Varro: antea intonsi fuere. Primus omnium radi quotidie inst.i.tuit Africa.n.u.s sequens: Divus Augustus cultris semper usus est. Then barbers came into use, among the nations, but more slowly among the Romans. In the year of the city 454, according to Varro, P. Ticinius Mena introduced barbers into Italy from Sicily: until that time, men wore their beards. The latter Africa.n.u.s first set the example of being shaven daily. Augustus constantly used razors. The pa.s.sage of Varro, referred to by Pliny, showing, that, before A. U. C. 454, men wore their beards, states the fact to be established, by the long beards, on all the old male statues. That _pa.s.sing of the sharp knife or razor, upon the beard_, spoken of, by Ezekiel, I take to be the latter of the two modes, employed by the Romans--"vel strictim, hoc est, ad cutem usque; vel paulo longius a cute, interposito pectine"--either close to the skin, or with a comb interposed. That both modes were in use is clear from the lines of Plautus in his play of the Captives, Act ii. sc. 2, v. 16--

Nunc senex est in tonstrina; nunc jam cultros adtinet; Sed utrum strictimne adtonsurum dicam esse, an per pectinem, Nescio.

Now the old man is in the barber's shop and under the razor; but whether to be close shaved, or clipped with the comb, I know not.

Pliny, as we have seen, states, that the practice came from Sicily. There it had been long in use. There is a curious reference to the custom in Cicero's Tusculan Questions, v. 20. Speaking of the tyrant, Dionysius he says--Quin etiam ne tonsori collum committeret, tondere suas filias docuit. Ita sordido ancillarique artificio regiae virgines, ut tonstriculae tondebant barbam et capillum patris. For, not liking to trust his throat to a barber, he taught his daughters to shave him, and thus these royal virgins, descending to this coa.r.s.e, servile vocation, became little, she barbers, and clipped their father's beard and hair.

There is a curious pa.s.sage in Pliny which not only proves, that barbers'

shops were common in his time, but shows the very ancient employment of cobweb, as a styptic. In lib. xxix. 36, he says--Fracto capiti aranei tela ex oleo et aceto imposita, non nisi vulnere sanato, abscedit. Haec et vulneribus tonstrinarum sanguinem sist.i.t. Spiders' web, with oil and vinegar, applied to a broken head, adheres, till the wound heals. This also stops the bleeding from cuts, in barbers' shops.

Razors were sharpened, some two thousand years ago, very much as they are at present. Pliny devotes sec. 47, lib. x.x.xvi. to hones and whetstones, oil stones and water stones--quarta ratio--he says--est saliva hominis proficientium in torstrinarum officinis--the fourth kind is such as are used in the barbers' shops, and which the man softens with his saliva.

Most common, proverbial sayings are, doubtless, of great antiquity.

Chopping-blocks with a razor is a common ill.u.s.tration of the employment of a subtle ingenuity, upon coa.r.s.e and uninteresting topics. Thus Goldsmith, in his Retaliation, says of Burke--

In short, 'twas his fate, unemploy'd, or in place, sir, To eat mutton cold, and chop blocks with a razor.

The latter ill.u.s.tration is as old as Livy--_novacula cotem discindere_.

The Romans made a prodigious fuss, about their beards. The first crop, called _prima barba_, and sometimes _lanugo_, was, according to Petronius, consecrated to some G.o.d. Suetonius says, in his Life of Nero, 12--Gymnico quod in septis edebat, inter buthysiae apparatum, barbam primam posuit, conditamque in auream pyxidem, et pretiosissimis margaritis adornatam, capitolio consecravit.--During the games, which he had given in the enclosures, and in the very midst of the splendor of the sacrifice, for the first time, he laid down his beard, and having placed it in a golden box, adorned with precious stones, he made a sacred deposit thereof, in the capitol.

After the custom of shaving had been introduced, by Mena, A. U. C. 454, it went out, for a short time, in Rome, during the time of Adrian, who as Spartia.n.u.s relates, in his Life of that Emperor, having some ugly excrescences on his chin, suffered his beard to grow to conceal them--of course the courtiers followed the example of the emperor--the people, that of the courtiers. The grave concealed those excrescences, more effectually, A. D. 139, and the _navacula_ again came into use, among the Romans: Marcus Antoninus, his successor, had no excrescences on his chin.

The day, upon which a young Roman was said _ponere barbam_, that is, to shave for the first time, was accounted a holiday; and Juvenal says, iii.

187, he received presents from his friends.

Ovid, Trist. iv. 10, 67, dates his earliest literary exhibitions, before the people, by his first or second shave, or clip--

Carmina quum primum populo juvenilia legi, Barba resecta mihi bisve semelve fuit.

Which may be thus translated--

When first in public I began To read my boyish rhymes, I scarcely could be call'd a man, And had not shav'd three times.

Caesar says of the Britons, B. G. V. 14--omni parte corporis rasa, praeter caput et labrum superius--they shave entirely, excepting the head and upper lip.

Half-shaving was accounted, in the days of Samuel, I suppose, as reducing the party to a state of semi-_barbarism_: thus, in Samuel II. x.

4--"Wherefore Hanan took David's servants, and shaved off the one half of their beards."

To be denied the privilege of shaving was accounted dishonorable, among the Catti, a German nation, in the days of Tacitus; for he says, De Moribus Germanae, 31--Apud Cattos in consensum vert.i.t, ut primum adoleverint, crinem barbamque submittere, nec, nisi hoste caeso--It was settled among the Catti, that no young man should cut his hair, or shave his beard, till he had killed his man.

Seneca, Cons. Polyb. x.x.xvi. 5, blames Caius, for refusing to shave, because he had lost his sister--Idem ille Caius furiosa in constantia, modo barbam capillumque submittens--There is that Caius, clinging so absurdly to his sorrow, and suffering his hair and beard to grow on account of it.

There is an admirable letter, from Seneca to Lucillus, Ep. 114, which shows, that the dandies, in old Rome, were much like our own. He is speaking of those--qui vellunt barbam, aut intervellunt; qui labra pressius tondent et abradunt, servata et submissa caetera parte--who pull out the beard, by the roots, or particular parts of it--who clip and shave the hair, either more closely, or leave it growing, on some parts of their lips.

Juvenal, ii. 99, and Martial, vi. 64, 4, laugh at such, as use a mirror while shaving. Knives and razors of _bra.s.s_, are of great antiquity, according to the Archaeological aeliana, p. 39.--Fosbroke, p. 351, says, that razors are mentioned by Homer. But I am going to a funeral, this afternoon, as an amateur, and it is time for me to shave--not with a razor of bra.s.s, however--Pradier is too light for me--I use the Chinese.

Hutchinson, i. 153, says, that Leverett was the first Governor of Ma.s.sachusetts, who is painted without a beard, and that he laid it aside, in Cromwell's court.

China is the paradise of barbers. There, according to Mr. Davis, they abound. No man shaves himself, the part, to be shorn, being out of his reach. There would be no difficulty in removing the scanty hair upon their chins; but the exact tonsure of the crown, without removing one hair from the Chinaman's long tail, that reaches to his heels, is a delicate affair.

Their razors are very heavy, but superlatively keen.

No. CXLI.

Barbers were chiefly peripatetics, when I was a boy. They ran about town, and shaved at their customers' houses. There were fewer shops. This was the genteel mode in Rome. The wealthy had their domestic barbers, as the planters have now, among their slaves. I am really surprised, that we hear of so few throats cut at the South. Some evidence of this custom--not of cutting throats--may be found, in one of the neatest epitaphs, that ever was written; the subject of which, a very young and accomplished slave-barber, has already taken a nap of eighteen hundred years. I refer to Martial's _epitaphium_, on Pantagathus, a word, which, by the way, signifies one, who is good at everything, or, as we say--a man of all works. It is the fifty-second, of Book VI. Its t.i.tle is _Epitaphium Pantagathi, Tonsoris_: