any degrees of difference there may
be in the application of the razor.'

So they talked of shaving at Dr. Taylor's before the advent of the
safety-razor; and our curiosity can never be satisfied as to just what
so acute an observer as Dr. Johnson would have thought of this
characteristically modern invention to combine speed and convenience. I
can imagine Boswell playfully reminding the doctor how that illustrious
friend had quite recently expressed his disapproval of bleeding. 'Sir,'
says Samuel, as he actually did on another occasion, 'courage is a
quality necessary for maintaining virtue.' And he adds (blowing with
high derision), 'Poh! If a man is to be intimidated by the possible
contemplation of his own blood--let him grow whiskers.' At any rate
among a thousand shavers to-day, two do not think so much alike that one
may not be influenced by this consideration, and regard Byron, composing
his verses while shaving, as a braver poet than if he had performed the
operation with a safety.

The world of shavers is divided into three classes: the ordinary shaver,
the safety shaver, and the extraordinary-safety shaver, who buys each
safety razor as soon as it is invented and is never so happy as when
about to try a new one. To a shaver of this class, cost is immaterial. A
safety-razor for a cent, with twenty gold-monogramed blades and a
guaranty of expert surgical attendance if he cuts himself, would stir
his active interest neither more nor less than a safety-razor for a
hundred dollars, with one Cannotbedull blade and an iron-clad agreement
to pay the makers an indemnity if he found it unsatisfactory. He buys
them secretly, lest his wife justly accuse him of extravagance, and
practises cunning in getting rid of them afterward; for to a
conscientious gentleman throwing away a razor is a responsible matter.
It is hard to think of any place where a razor-blade, indestructible and
horribly sharp as it is,--for all purposes except shaving,--can be
thrown away without some worry over possible consequences. A baby may
find and swallow it; the ashman sever an artery; dropping it overboard
at sea is impracticable, to say nothing of the danger to some innocent
fish. Mailing it anonymously to the makers, although it is expensive, is
a solution, or at least shifts the responsibility. Perhaps the safest
course is to put the blades with the odds and ends you have been going
to throw away to-morrow ever since you can remember; for t