Jefferson County Online A part of the IAGenWeb and USGenWeb Projects Who's Who in 1921 & 1922 George Edward Mart

"The Fairfield Tribune"
Thursday, June 30, 1921
Page SIX

NO. 20

GEORGE EDWARD MART

Yeh, it's George Edward working at his trade. Barbering? Oh, no! Barbering is merely a bit of a side line with George Edward; his real business is debate. Barber shop is a handy place to have for this business, because it lures a lot of fellows in with whom George can argue.

The above picture was sketched from life during one of George's busiest rush hours. The Dempsey-Carpentier fight is now so close that George feels he must hurry if he gets it thoroughly settled before hand. Some minor events like electing a mayor or city councilman George leaves to his barber lieutenants, lots of times. He has two or three such and they do very well as under-studies of George, but he can't trust them with the big matters like this international pugilistic championship fight. You see George is unusually busy in late years as he has lost two of his most trusted men, Paddy Mikesell and Ted Kocher. He used to let Paddy settle all arguments about fishing and hunting. And he could set Ted onto any debatable subject with the assurance that it would be well taken care of with the barber shop getting away with all the honors. 'Twas pretty handy for George just to supervise things this way and merely give his aid when some customer seemed to be getting the best of Ted or Paddy in an argument. But since they've gone George is overworked taking care of everything. There's been a lot of mighty important questions to settle of late, you know . His barber business has been growing so much, too, that George has to waste a lot of time cutting hair and shaving people when he really ought to be giving more attention to national baseball.

George Edward was born out around Chariton. He did pretty well at school--got on the debating team and downed all the debaters in the schools around there; naturally, he took up the barber's trade after having thus fitted himself for it. George called his shop in Chariton "The Forum." It was a great center for the debaters to assemble for a time but it got so that George had settled all questions of importance and there wasn't much of anything doing in the debate line. So he went down into Missouri to the state insane asylum in searchc (sic) of something morth while (sic). George beat all the inmates there, hands down, except one old fellow who thought he was General Lee and contended that the Civil War wasn't over with yet. George couldn't out-argue him so he left in disgust after trying it three years and went back to Chariton where he found some ne wquestions (sic) to settle. These being settled, he took a try at the Des Moines county insane asylum for a while but a deaf and dumb inmate who thought he was a barber drove him away in disgust. He came to Fairfield then and went to barbering again; George says you can find as many crazy people to argue with around a barber shop as in a bug house, anyway.

George Edward is some pumpkins as a gardener. He works with tireless industry at it and succeeds in raising enough produce to keep the neighborhood chickens in comfort. A lady was admiring his garden one day recently and said:

"My! you can just make anything grow, can't you?"

George flushed with pleasure. Just then a gust of wind came along and blew off his hat, exposing his shining pate. George blshed (sic) and stammered some as he replied:

"Well, most anything."

You may have gathered from these truthful remarks that George Edward Mart is somewhat given to talkativeness, not to say loquacity. Mebbe so. But if he does claim the inherent and traditional, not to say ethical, right of a barber to talk, it's only for others to hear him. But--get this--George Edward always has something to say when he talks, and he succeeds in saying it reasonably well. He has talked himself into the job of High-mucky-a muck and Grand Gazabo of the K. P. lodge and he's done something more than talk since he got the job.

And he really doesn't talk very much while he shaves you; it's only when his razor is pulling pretty hard that he entertains you in a conversational way and gets your mind off the pain. George beliebes (sic) in making your visit at his snappy, uptodate shop just as pleasant as he knows how, consequently he is a close student of encyclopedias so that he can talk to you intelligently on your favorite subject. And people, some way, seem to enjoy his conversation for he continues to add another barber chair to his shop every now and then. Fact is, George Edward Mart is a pretty likable and dependable sort of a chap. And if you're getting along in years and bit and are a little sensitive about your growing bald spot, let George Edward cut your hair for he's so tactful he'll never mention your baldness, nor anything unpleasant to you, for that matter. His conversation is as artistic as his tonsorial work.