In Ring Lardner's "Haircut" the narrator's attitude toward Jim Kendall and his pranks slowly reveals the backbiting nature of small-town life and of the narrator himself. The setting of the short story is a small town barbershop. Most people have heard the saying, " when you live in a small town everyone knows your business." This short story stands true to the saying.
             As one can find out from reading "Haircut" Whitey, the narrator, tells the readers a whole lot of gossip about the people of the town. An individual has to wonder if everything Whitey says is the truth. One day Whitey is giving a total stranger a haircut and goes into a flashback about Jim Kendall's jokes and his "accidental shootin'"(103).
             Jim Kendall was known as the joker of the town. He played heartless and cruel jokes on people despite the outcome. Jim was not much of a family man either. One time he invited his wife and children to the circus and he never showed up. Whitey says, "she'd of divorced Jim, only she seen she couldn't support herself and the kids and she was hopin' that some day Jim would cut his habits"(98). Jim never did change and just kept on with his jokes but eventually the joke would be on him.
             Hod Meyers is Jim's best friend. They do almost everything together. Every Saturday night they go down to the barbershop to have some laughs. Hod and Jim clown Milt Sheppard's large Adam's apple. Hod yells at Whitey to "wait a minute! Before you cut into it, let's make up a pool and see who can guess closest to the number of seeds" (97).
             Julie Gregg is a young lady "pretty near thirty" (100) who takes care of her "invalid" (100) mother. Julie left the small town and went "away to school and Chicago and New York and different places and they ain't no subject she can't talk on" (100). Jim wanted Ju...