Gallipolis journal. [volume] (Gallipolis, Ohio) 1837-1919, 1863-11-05
THE BEARD.

Nature has supplied the most Of
mankind with boards, and in very an
cient times, the use Of razor upon il
was unknown. In Greece, the first in
stance of shaving occurred in the reign
Of Alexander the Great. This warrior
ordered the Macedonians to be shaved,
lest the boards of his soldiers should af-
ford handles to their enemies. The
sarcastic Diogenes, when he once saw
some one whose chin was smooth, said,
81 am afraid you think you have
! ground to accuse nature, for having
made you man and not woman"
In Oicero's time. the genu;uo beard
vas not worn b. society. But the bar
bula goatee) seems to have been affect
ed by the young Roman "swells."
The beard began to revive again in
the time of the Emperor Hadrian.-
But Of all the emperors who wore that
ornament, none creates so much inter-
est in posterity as the Emperor Julian.
His beard is the most famous beard in
history. Speaking of it, he says: al
commence with my countenance. IT.
had nothing regular, or particularly
agreeable about it; and out OF humor
and whimsicalitv, and just to punish it
for not being handsome. l have made
it ugly by carrying this long and peo-
pied beard"
The Britans, like the ancient Gauls,
allowed the hail. to grow thick on the
head; and, although they shaved their
boards close on the chin, wore immense
tangled mustaches, which sometimes
reached to their breasts.
1t may be presumed that the North
ern nations felt the symbolic force of
these appendages; we have a we'll
known passage in Tscitus about the
Catti, who, he says, made a general
custom of what among other German
people was an affair OF private daring
the letting the "crinem barbamque"
grow till they had killed an enemy
The Normans. when they conquered
England, were well shaven, on the back
Of the head as on the face: but the
Saxons wore full boards.
In Edward lis reign. boards were
worn apparently by persons in years,
great officers Of State, and knights tenn
pIars. but not generally. Sir John
Vaudeville the traveller (who died
A. D. 1879. was called Sir John with
the Beard presumably from its sise).
In Edward Ills time-the heyday Of
chiyslry, Of feudal ornament, Of love-
poetry, Of heraldry-long beard asd (
fine mustache were in honorable esti-
nation. q In Richard lis reign, the
fashion continued. The beard was
"forked,s and "in all knightly efigies
the mustache is long and dropping on
each side of the mouth" .fr
A sober aud well governed gentle
man OF Elisabeth's time, regulated bis
beard, as be did his dress, mind, man
ners, or conduct. 1t was an index Of
bis status or profession; an emblem of
bis feelings and tastes-a symbol to be
respected like his coat OF arms. The
Reformer, John Knox, cherished
large and profuse one, obviously from
its patriarchal character. from the hon
or shown il in the Jewish days, from
whose sentiments he drew his inspira-
ton. The scholar, such as George
Buchanan, wore it--sometimes as one
who followed Knox and Calvin. 20
The hair, as we all know, played an
important symbolic part in the Civil
Wars Of England; and the same rigor I
which the Puritan exercised on his
head, he exercised on bis chin, aud
trimmed his beard as closely as he
trimmed his locks. The vandyke beard
is the typical one Of this period.-
Peaked boards and mustaches were pop
ular among the cavaliers; and were at
least pretty generally worn.
Boards went out Of fashion for more
than two hundred years among the :