The story
“The barbers, who were partners, agreed that women should not be allowed to vote. They discussed the subject at such length one day that a well-known judge, who was in the chair at the time, told Mrs. Clyde-Maxwell, a suffrage leader, that if she could prevent the talkative barbers from voting against the suffrage amendment, he would gladly contribute $500 to the cause. One of Mrs. Clyde-Maxwell’s lieutenants, a quick-witted girl, offered to win the money. She got a position as manicurist in the barber shop, and soon had both the tonsorial experts head over heels in love with her. Even then Minnie could not win them over to an enlightened view simply by arguing with them. So she fanned the flames of jealousy until her two admirers came to blows, and the Battle of the Barber Shop became the big scandal of the community. The barbers were arrested. They spent Election Day, and many weary nights to follow, in jail. The judge, who pronounced the sentence, cheerfully paid Minnie the $500 reward he had promised.”
Summary from Reel Life · 4 December 1915
