At the Sign of the Barber's Pole

At the Sign of the Barber's Pole, subtitled Studies In Hirsute History, is credited to William Andrews. The preface says an attempt has been made to bring together notices of the more interesting matters that gather round the man and his trade. One picture shows the interior of a barber's shop, where a patient is undergoing the operation of phlebotomy and holds a pole or staff having a bandage twisted round it.

A speech in the House of Peers by Lord Thurlow is given, in which the noble lord said that by a statute still in force the barbers and surgeons were each to use a pole. The text says Pitt was in power and, sorely in need of money, hit upon the plan of a tax of a guinea per head on those who used hair powder. A record from the Hull Watch Sub-Committee says that on December 1st, 1859, a motion was moved and carried unanimously, that it be a recommendation to the Watch Committee to permit the police to wear a beard and moustache.