The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1856-04-24

her widest fancies, casting off alike the restraint
and the garb of her sex-astonishing the world
alike by the power of her words and the frenzy
of her deeds-although
-" her SOUL amid the lions
VI her nmultuous senses, roars Defiance
let l know that sometimes, in the desolate
chambers of her heart, still small voice wakes
fsintest echoes. / know it, because the crown
and glory of her insulted womanhood, profaue
hands have not dared to touch, and still
"Thy woman's hair my sister, all unshorn,
Floats back disheveled strength in agony"
have spoken chiefly of heads feminine, for
all the art and grace and poetry are eoncentred
there. Heads masculine, surmounted by one
great shock of hair, are simply-shocking
Certain psychologists affirm man to be the grand
finale OF earth creations; but, surely, creative
power cannot have exhausted itself in the pro-
duction Of a race of animals, whose taste per-
mits them to luxuriate in chimney-top hats and
swallow-tailed coats Verify, man in the nine
teenth century has much to answer for, and
his tutelar divinity is the Gimp of the pervorse"
With an insane eagerness for evil, he mars the
work of natures own hand, and wages war to
the knife Tor to the razor) with every hirsute
token of manliness; therefore, on his guilty
head forever rest "the deep damnation of it's
folded away under the dust of ages, and of the
apostolic boards now recklessly squandered in
barber shops, whose name is legion, am forced
to admit that, so far from exhibiting any signs
of higher development, the world seems only
to have made an alarming progress backward.
In bitterness of spirit, l sigh that the good old
days are gone-that the white beard of Socra-
ties no longer falls in venerable majesty down
his stalwart breast-that the flowing folds OF
Plato's robe have long since ceased to sweep
the clustered paths of Academic.
But stay even in the surrounding darkness
do / not perceive the faint gray of the ap.
preaching dawn? Yea, verify from the ocean
there ariseth cloud no bigger than a mans
hand.
"In the desert a fountain is springing
In the wide waste there sull is tree"
Gazing on the motley group of men that
the out-croppingsn of a long-buried but
time-honored and Bible-sanctioned "peculiar
institution" valuable, not so much for the act
uality that is, as for the promise of what is to
be. know that | am trenching on forbidden
ground, when, in the very heart of New Eng
land, | thus refer to the-moustache But
though its star is not yet in the ascendant,
based on the immutable principles of beauty
its destiny is sure. Transplanted to American
soil, it has not yet learned the full vigor and
richness of oriental growth. Forced in its in.
fancy to meet and grapple with the prejudices
of many generations, it has hitherto stood al
most solely on the defensive but, "great is
the truth, and will prevail" and even if the
foundations of its strength must be laid in
blood, it will surely come forth from the con
test triumphant.
l know that, in the minds of many well
meaning and excellent people, moustache is
shudderingly suggestive of " nice" young men
"2.40" horses, and +" extra superfine A No. II
ideas generally-to use the significant though
somewhat peculiar nomenclature of Young
America. But was Paul roue7 Must Abra
ham necessarily have "sported" Mount Vesu
vius "skin-tights?" Did the iron-ionted
supple-sinewed" sons of the desert bow theil
swart faces before the man Moses with any
losing of reverence, because he stood up be
fore them in unshorn dignity? Ho children
ly stem In the rash battle which you are
madly waging against noble reform, do you
not see the shades of the mighty dead march
menacingly to meet you in "thick array o.
depth Unreasonable ?" Be sure, in this un
holy strife, like Banquos ghost, they 4" will mo-
down."
would you have man turn himself into
a monkeyp 2" growls some surly conservative.
Undoubtedly; if the only difference between
you and a monkey lies in your application o
soap and steel, by all means forswear the razor
and vegetate into your true sphere as quickly
as possible. The world gets on but Indifferent
ly well with you; it will doubtless make a shift
to live without you.
"Suppose moustache is fiery red?" exult
antly asks another. A cogent argument, il
truth but remember, if it proves anything, i
proves too much. The same necessity tina
requires the tonsure of the lip, requires also the
clipping of the auburn locks. / think yor
would be slow to recommend a man to become
a living representative of the New England
Primer pictures of Time, without the forelock
simply because the shade of his hair might no
suit your fastidious taste; yet common sense
demands the whole or none."
"Dear mel" sighs trim young man, "sucf
a filthy abomination How can body eat anC
drink with it?" Why, bless your little heart, my
dear he does not eat and drink with it at all
He uses his tongue and teeth, just as you do
If grown man, in the full possession of al
his faculties, cannot deposite the gifts of Cere
and Bacchus at the inner shrine of the temple
without scattering them along the vestibule
why, he would better have recourse to a bill
and tucker" and let mamma feed him with
spoon.
"Aping foreign fashions |" sententiously
mutters a true-blue Jackson Democrat Know
Nothing.
Most worshipful sir, that charming wife o
yours, in Levantine silk and "real Honiton,
burst not, for delicateness and tenderness, ad
venture to set the sole of her foot upon augh
rougher than Turkey carpets. The fairy bon
nets of your blooming daughters were fabri
Gated amid the vintages of sunny France. The
shawls that fall so gracefully from their shout
ders were wrought in the vale of Cashmere
You feast your eyes on the perfectness of Italian
statues; you listen with rapt and breathless
eagerness, to catch every note that wells W
from Swedish throat. Day by day, you make
your heart merry with the blood of the Rhe
nish grape. But, o temporal o moresl) NJ
sooner do you detect the first symptoms of al
incipient moustache, than you "cry havoc, ant
let slip the dogs of war;" because, forsooth
Young America must not "ape foreign fash
ions Verify, consistency as jewel.
1t would be easy to go on knocking down Lii
liputian arguments with Brobdignagian clubs
but have already trespassed too long on your
patience.
can only wish that were a voice, able t.
reach the two classes into which the world O
men may be divided, viz: the moustachioed anc
the non moustachioed. In the ears of the latter
l would thunder the advice of the Hebrew
King to his unfortunate ambassadors, "Tarry
in Jericho till your boards be grown" To the
former, "with linked sweetness long drawn
out" l would breathe bit of poetry, redolen
with thefragrance of both Moses and Shakespeare
containing less rhyme than reason, and les'
rhythm1s than either, but whose meaning ex
plates the metre:
Let the corners of your whiskers be marred,
When Ills much easier and cheaper and healthier
handsomer and better every way, to go bearded hk,
the pardn