A barber’s close shave with angry mob
Sept. 12, 1906: It was time for a trim, so F. A. Powers, a miner from Yuma, stopped by a 5th Street barbershop sporting “whiskers like an Arizona chaparral.”
A barber named Lewis snipped off the whiskers, gave Powers a haircut, creamed his face and colored his hair, The Times reported. When Lewis charged the miner $6.25 for his work, word quickly spread and angry Angelenos swarmed his shop, yelling “Robber!” and “Thief!” and demanding that he be lynched.
The Times said that when the officers came, “Lewis was trembling and pale as death. He wanted to run from the shop, but was too badly scared to know which direction to start.”
Powers slipped away in all the excitement, “to go home, and dream of the plush chair in the glittering barbershop,” The Times said.
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