Getting a shave and a haircut for two bits (25 cents) in 1895 Phoenix


It's 1895, we're in Phoenix, and I have two bits (25 cents). I'm going to get a shave and a haircut!

Yeah, I know it's a lot of money, and I have other options. I could get a bath, or even a nice meal, but I've never had a shave and a haircut before! And what's the point of paying two bits for a bath, when there's Swilling's Ditch there just north of Van Buren, which I was swimming in just this morning!

25 cent baths at the Commercial Hotel (later the Luhrs Hotel) in 1888, northeast corner of Central and Jefferson, Phoenix, Arizona.

My two bits would buy me a meal at that nice restaurant in Tempe. Wow, I'll bet that's great! Still, it's a long way from downtown Phoenix to Mill Avenue, and I'd have to take a trolley, which would cost me a nickel.



Yeah, I want to get a shave and a haircut. I think that new girl there on Melinda's Alley has been looking at me, and she probably thinks that I'm a mess. I need to get cleaned up! I'm going to the Fashion Barber Shop there on Central just across from the Opera House (between Washington and Jefferson).

There! So what do you think? I clean up pretty good, don't I? And, look, they've used my picture in their ad! Well, it looks like me, don't you think?

Shave-and-a-haircut! Twwooooo biiiiitttts!
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