The Placer herald., 1858-03-06

GIN, Tor we 1lnd number OF BARRIERS were
sent from thence to Rome, in the year 296
Is. o.; and the refinement of shaving daily
Is said to have been first introduced by no
less person than Scipio Africanus. At the
expiration of the republic, boards had be-
come very rare; and historians mention the
alarm in which some of the emperors lived
lest some of their boards should cut their
throats. For the sake of concealing the
scars on his face, the emperor Hadrian wore
a beard, and this, of course, brought that ap-
pendage into use; but the custom did not
long survive him, although his two imme-
dlate successors wore boards in the character
of philosophers. Among the Romans shay
ing did not commence Immediately on the
appearance of the hair; the youth was suffer-
ed to acquire small beard, and the opera
ton of shaving was performed for the first
time with great deal of ceremony. Per-
sons of quality had the operation performed
for their sons by persons of greater quality
than themselves; and this act rendered such
persons the adaptive fathers to the children.
The day was a festival; visits of ceremony
were paid to the young men, who received
presents from their friends and the first
growth of the beard was solemnlv conse
Grated to some deity-usually to the house
hold goods.
The ancient German nations shaved the
beard, except that on the upper lip; and what
is expressly stated of one tribe was probably
true of the rest-that they allowed no young
man to shave or cut his hair, until he had
killed an enemy in battle. The ancient
Goths, Franks, Gauls and Britons, also, wore
only mustaches, the hair of which they suf-
tered to grow to very inconvenient length
The Saxons wore long boards, but, at the in
PRODUCTION of Christianity, the laity began,
by degrees, to initiate the clergy, who were
shaven; they, however, still retained the hair
on the upper lip. The Danes appear to
have worn their boards. Sueno, the first
Danish chief who invaded England, was sur
named "Forkbeard" The Normans shaved
their boards entirely, and looked upon the
appendage with SO much distaste, as an indi-
cation of misery and distress, that they were
the great apostles of shaving wherever they
came. Accordingly, they endeavored to per-
suade or compel the English to shave the
hair Of the upper lips. The great majority
yielded to the necessity of the case, but there
were many who chose rather to leave the
country than resign their whskers. How
ever, boards again had their day. In the
fourteenth century they became again fash
ionable, and continued until the beginning
of the seventeenth. At the latter date the
dimensions had become much contracted.
and they We're soon after relinquished, the
mustaches on y being retained; and at the
commencement of the last century the prac-
tice of shaving the whole face bad become
universal. In these latter changes the ex-
ample Of France was followed. In that
country, Henry VI. was the last sovereign
who wore tolerably fine beard He was
succeeded by a beardless minor, in compli-
ment to whom the courtiers shaved all their
boards except the mustaches. The success
sion of another minor confirmed the custom,
and ultimately the mustaches also disappear
ed. The Spanards, more tardy influenced
by French example, kept their boards until
the French and English were beginning to
relinquish even mustaches. Perhaps they
would have kept the cherished appendage to
this day, but French prince (Philip W
mounted the Spanish throne with shaved
chin. The courtiers, with heavy hearts, imi
tated the prince; and the people, with heavi
er hearts, initiated the courtiers. The pop
ular feeling on the subject, however, remains
recorded in the proverb: "Since we have
lost our boards we have lost our souls"
With respect to boards among the eccles-
astics, as the practice has differed somewhat
from that Of the laty, it requires to be sepa-
rately noticed. Sometimes the clergy of the
Western Church were enjoined to wear
boards, under an impression that shaving
was an effeminate practice, and that beard
we'll became the gravity Of the ecclesiastical
character; and at other times shaving was
enforced, from an idea that pride was too
apt to lurk beneath venerable beard 1t
is related that Guilaume Duprat, Bishop of
Clermont, who assisted at the Council of
Trent, and built the College Of the Jesuits
at Paris, had the finest beard that ever was
seen. 1t was too fine beard for Bishop;
and the canons of his cathedral, in full chap
ton of shaving him. Accordingly, when
next he came to the choir, the dean, the
pre0ot, and the chant,e, approached with scis-
sors and razors, soap, basin and warm water.
lie took to his heels at the sight, and escap-
ed to his castle of Beauregard, about two
miles from Cermont, where he fell sick from
vexation and died.
Lately, Digger Indian and squaw,
as nearl ly beautiful as Digger squaws get to
be, were married, by high priest of their
tribe, on a ranch adjoining the city. The
father of the bride, who approved of the