At the Sign of the Barbers Pole | Page 2

times, into whose art those beautiful leeches,
[Footnote: This is the old word for doctors or surgeons.] our fair virgins,
were also accustomed to be initiated. In cities and corporate towns they
still retain their name Barber-Chirurgeons. They therefore used to hang
their basons out upon poles to make known at a distance to the weary
and wounded traveller where all might have recourse. They used poles,
as some inns still gibbet their signs, across a town." It is a doubtful
solution of the origin of the barber's sign.
[Illustration: The Barber's Shop, from "Orbis Pictus."]
A more satisfactory explanation is given in the "Antiquarian
Repertory." "The barber's pole," it is there stated, "has been the subject
of many conjectures, some conceiving it to have originated from the
word poll or head, with several other conceits far-fetched and as
unmeaning; but the true intention of the party coloured staff was to
show that the master of the shop practised surgery and could breathe a
vein as well as mow a beard: such a staff being to this day by every
village practitioner put in the hand of the patient undergoing the
operation of phlebotomy. The white band, which encompasses the staff,
was meant to represent the fillet thus elegantly twined about it." We
reproduce a page from "Comenii Orbis Pictus," perhaps better known
under its English title of the "Visible World." It is said to have been the
first illustrated school-book printed, and was published in 1658.
Comenius was born in 1592, was a Moravian bishop, a famous
educational reformer, and the writer of many works, including the
"Visible World: or a Nomenclature, and Pictures of all the chief things
that are in the World, and of Men's Employments therein; in above an
150 Copper Cuts." Under each picture are explanatory sentences in two
columns, one in Latin, and the other in English, and by this means the
pupil in addition to learning Latin, was able to gain much useful
knowledge respecting industries and other "chief things that are in the

World." For a century this was the most popular text-book in Europe,
and was translated into not fewer than fourteen languages. It has been
described as a crude effort to interest the young, and it was more like an
illustrated dictionary than a child's reading-book. In the picture of the
interior of a barber's shop, a patient is undergoing the operation of
phlebotomy (figure 11). He holds in his hand a pole or staff having a
bandage twisted round it. It is stated in Brand's "Popular Antiquities"
that an illustration in a missal of the time of Edward the First represents
this ancient practice.
In a speech made in the House of Peers by Lord Thurlow, in support of
postponing the further reading of the Surgeons' Incorporation Bill, from
July 17th, 1797, to that day three months, the noble lord said that by a
statute still in force, the barbers and surgeons were each to use a pole.
The barbers were to have theirs blue and white, striped, with no other
appendage; but the surgeon's pole, which was the same in other
respects, was likewise to have a galley-pot and a red rag, to denote the
particular nature of their vocation.
A question is put in the British Apollo (London, 1708):--
"... Why a barber at port-hole Puts forth a party-coloured pole?"
This is the answer given:--
"In ancient Rome, when men lov'd fighting, And wounds and scars
took much delight in, Man-menders then had noble pay, Which we call
surgeons to this day. 'Twas order'd that a hughe long pole, With bason
deck'd should grace the hole, To guide the wounded, who unlopt Could
walk, on stumps the others hopt; But, when they ended all their wars,
And men grew out of love with scars, Their trade decaying; to keep
swimming They joyn'd the other trade of trimming, And on their poles
to publish either, Thus twisted both their trades together."
During his residence at his living in the county of Meath, before he was
advanced to the deanery of St Patrick's, Dean Swift was daily shaved
by the village barber, who gained his esteem. The barber one morning,
when busy lathering Swift, said he had a great favour to ask his

reverence, adding that at the suggestion of his neighbours he had taken
a small public-house at the corner of the churchyard. He hoped that
with the two businesses he might make a better living for his family.
"Indeed," said the future Dean, "and what can I do to promote the
happy union?"
"And please you," said the barber, "some of our customers have heard
much about your reverence's poetry; so that, if you would but
condescend to give me a smart little touch in that way to clap