Jim Kershner’s this day in history

From our archives, 100 years ago

A butcher from Garfield, Washington, professed to be shocked to be charged $4.60 for a haircut by Lizzie Kirkpatrick, a “lady barber” in Spokane.

Henry Miller said it amounted to a “holdup” and he promised to “prosecute the case to the bitter end” – even though he paid in advance.

“When I saw the sign, ‘Lady Barbers Here,’ I thought she was probably a poor, hardworking woman that needed a little help, and in I went,” Miller said. “When she asked me what I wanted, I said a haircut, shave and shampoo, thinking that it would not exceed $1.50 at the outset, and to be game I shoved up $2 in payment.”

He claimed that the lady barber then said, “Come across again, old man, with about $2.60 more.”

“And then I realized for the first time that I was in a holdup game,” Miller said. “I tried to remonstrate, but it was to no purpose; she said she wanted that $4.60 or there would be trouble, and I produced the money.”

He then went to the police, his hair still smelling of the “perfume poured upon his locks by the lady tonsorialist.”

Kirkpatrick scoffed at his complaints.

“Why, the fellow has no kick coming,” she said. “He got what he called for, and there is the bill of prices on the wall to show what our charges are.”

She said he got a haircut, a shave, a neck trim, two kinds of shampoo and a massage.