The ladies whose hair he dressed,sometimes complained that their curl papers were scrawled over with writing,and,when opened out,they were found covered with verses.
The men whom he shaved spread his praises abroad.In so small a town a reputation for verse-making soon becomes known.
"You can see me,"he said to a customer,"with a comb in my hand,and a verse in my head.I give you always a gentle hand with my razor of velvet.My mouth recites while my hand works."When Jasmin desired to display his oratorical powers,he went in the evenings to the quarter of the Augustins,where the spinning-women assembled,surrounded by their boys and girls.
There he related to them his pleasant narratives,and recited his numerous verses.
Indeed,he even began to be patronized.His master addressed him as "Moussu,"--the master who had threatened him with ending his days in the hospital!
Thus far,everything had gone well with him.What with shaving,hairdressing,and rhyming,two years soon passed away.Jasmin was now eighteen,and proposed to start business on his own account.This required very little capital;and he had already secured many acquaintances who offered to patronize him.
M.Boyer d'Agen,who has recently published the works of Jasmin,with a short preface and a bibliography,[4]says that he first began business as a hairdresser in the Cour Saint-Antoine,now the Cour Voltaire.When the author of this memoir was at Agen in the autumn of 1888,the proprietor of the Hotel du Petit St.Jean informed him that a little apartment had been placed at Jasmin's disposal,separated from the Hotel by the entrance to the courtyard,and that Jasmin had for a time carried on his business there.
But desiring to have a tenement of his own,he shortly after took a small house alongside the Promenade du Gravier;and he removed and carried on his trade there for about forty years.The little shop is still in existence,with Jasmin's signboard over the entrance door:"Jasmin,coiffeur des Jeunes Gens,"with the barber's sud-dish hanging from a pendant in front.
The shop is very small,with a little sitting-room behind,and several bedrooms above.When I entered the shop during my visit to Agen,I found a customer sitting before a looking-glass,wrapped in a sheet,the lower part of his face covered with lather,and a young fellow shaving his beard.
Jasmin's little saloon was not merely a shaving and a curling shop.Eventually it became known as the sanctuary of the Muses.
It was visited by some of the most distinguished people in France,and became celebrated throughout Europe.But this part of the work is reserved for future chapters.
Footnotes to Chapter III.
[1]Magasin des Enfants.
[2]Mes Nouveaux Souvenirs.
[3]In England,some barbers,and barber's sons,have eventually occupied the highest positions.Arkwright,the founder of the cotton manufacture,was originally a barber.
Tenterden,Lord Chief Justice,was a barber's son,intended for a chorister in Canterbury Cathedral.Sugden,afterwards Lord Chancellor,was opposed by a noble lord while engaged in a parliamentary contest.Replying to the allegation that he was only the son of a country barber,Sugden said:"His Lordship has told you that I am nothing but the son of a country barber;but he has not told you all,for I have been a barber myself,and worked in my father's shop,--and all I wish to say about that is,that had his Lordship been born the son of a country barber,he would have been a barber still!"
[4]OEUVRES COMPLETES DE JACQUES JASMIN:Preface de l'Edition,Essai d'orthographe gasconne d'apres les langues Romane et d'Oc,et collation de la traduction litterale.Par Boyer d'Agen.
1889.Quatre volumes.