Grand River times. [volume] (Grand Haven, Mich.) 1851-18??, 1853-11-30
From Dickens Household Words.
WHY SHAVE!


them away as they peep out from beneath the
skin, mix them ANONYMOUSLY with soap suds,
and cause them TO be cast away with the off
scourings of the house. We are at great pains
and trouble to do this, and we do it unwiingly,
knowing that we deprive our. faces of an orna-
ment, and more or less suspectiug that we take
away from ourselves something given to us by
nature and for use and our advantage; as indeed
we do. Nevertheless, we treat our boards as so
much dirt that has to be removed daily from our
persons, for no other reason than because it is
the custom Of the country ;-or, because we
strive to make ourselves prettier by assimilating
our appearance to that of women.
am no friend to gentlemen who wilfully af-
feet external oddity, while they are, within, all
dull and commonplace. | am not disposed by
carrying beard myself to beard public opinion.
But opinions may change; we were not always
a nation of shavers The day may again come
when "'Twill be merry in hall, when boards wag
ALL" and Britons shall no more be slaves to ra-
zors.
have never read of savages who shaved them
selves with hnts; nor have been able to dis
cover who first introduced among civilized men
the tonsure of the chin. The shmen polls and
faces of ecclesastics date from the time of Pope
same literary authority of scripture that still eau
ses women to wear bonnets in our churches that
they may not pray uncovered. St. Paul, in the
same chapter, further asks the Corinthians,
Doth not even nature itself teach you, that, if
man have long hair it is shame unto him 2"
Pope Anacletus determined therefore, to remove
all shame from churchmen, by ordering them to
go shaven altogether. The shaving of the
ho,r I'd hui bov nh
more ancient. The Greeks taught shaving TO
the Romans and Pliny records that the first
Greek BARRIERS were taken from Sicily 20 Rome
by Publius Tcinius, in the four hundred and if-
ty-fourth year after the building Of the city,
The Greeks, however--certainly it was so with
them in the time Of Alexander-seems to have
been more disposed to use their BARRIERS for the
pruning and trimming, than for the absolute re-
moval of the beard, and of that ornament upon
the upper lip which they termed the myStar, and
which we call-using the same name that they
gave to it, slightly rrupted-moustache. In
the best days of Greece, few but the philosopher
wore unpruned boards. A large flowing beard
and a large flowing mantle were in those times
as naturally and essentially part Of the bus-
ness of a philosopher, as a signboard is part in
these days of the business Of publican. So
who. having long been teazed by an importunate
talker, asked him who and what he was. The
man replied in pique, " Do you not see by my
beard and mantle that am philosopher 2" Il
see the beard and MANTLE" said the emperor;
=" but the philosopher, where is he?'
The idea that there existed connexion be-
tween mans vigor Of mind and body, and vig-
or of growth in his beard, was confirmed BY the
foot tbot ha IF tbn NH
losophers, earned pre-eminently the title of the
bearded. Among races of men capable of grow
ing rich crops on the chn the beard has always
been regarded more or less as the type of pow.
er. Some races, as the Mongolians, do not get
more than twenty or thirty thick coarse hairs,
and are as likely then to pluck them out after
the fashion of some northern tribes, as to esteem
them in an exaggerated way, as has been some-
times the case in China In the worlds history
the bearded races have at all times been the
most important actors and there is no part of
the body which, on the whole, they have shown
more readiness to honor. Among many nations
and through many centuries, development of
beard has been thought indicative of the devel-
opmcnt of strength, both bodily and mental. In
strict accordance with that feeling, the strength
of Samson was made to rest in his hair The
is characteristic feature Of the chief of the two
sexes q speak as an ancient,) of man, and OF
man only, in the best years of his life, when he
is capable of putting forth his independent en-
ergies. AS years multiply and judgment ripens,
the beard grows, and with it grows, or ought to
grow, every mans title to respect Gray boards
become thus so closely connected with the idea
Of mature discretion, that they were taken often
as its sign or cause; and thus it was fabled OF
the wise king Numa, that he was gray-haired
even in his youth.
TO revert to the subject of shaving. Tacitus
says that in his time the Germans cut their
boards. In our times among that people the
growth of a beard, or at least of good mystar
or mustachio, had come by the year lS4S to be
regarded so much as mark Of aristocracy that
after the revolutions of that year the Germans
took to the obliteration of the vain mark Of dis.
tinction by growing hair on their own chins and
upper lips. Hairs have been thus made signifi-
cant in new way. There are now to be seen
on the continent such things as revolutionary
boards, and not long ago, in small German
State, a barrister was denied a hearing because
he stood up in his place in the law court, wear.
ing beard of the revolutionary cut Not only
custom, but even to this day, law regulates the
cultivation OF the hair on many Of our faces
There Is scarcely an army iD Europe which j:
not subject to some regulations that affect the
beard and whiskers. In England the chin and
except in some regiments--the upper lip has
to be shaved; elsewhere the beard is 10 be cul
tivated and whiskers shaven. Such matters may
have their significance. The most significant o.
whiskers are, however, those worn by the Jews
in the East, and especially in Africa, who, in ac