Fayetteville observer. [volume] (Fayetteville, Tenn.) 1850-1966, 1866-09-06
For the Fayetteville Observer.
An Essay On Moustaches.

In established tact-a recognized
institutional marked feature of
his progressive age. The most
'keptical have ceased to doubt;
The fiercest opposition is overcome;
the most inveterate prejudices up
rooted. They stand securely up
on their own intrinsic merits, the
distinguishing badge of Young
America, upon whose banner the
eagle Of victory has On numerous
occasions found it convenient to
roost. They are no longer regard
ed as a delicate topic Of CONVEX
and may be freely discuss
ed in all circles, without risk of
causing unpleasant controversy by
making the argument too much on
one side. Once they were in a
timid and feeble minority, with no
defenders, save fops and exquisites.
These conceited and witless crea-
lures were, it is true, the first to
adopt the exclusive moustache-
not from any sense of the utility
or propriety of an unshaven face,
but from an innate love of the
vagaries of fashion. They thus
led the van, and became the I'M
conscious pioneers of reform--the
shafts of ridicule which were level
led at them having as little effect
upon their obtuse sensibilities as
hailstones upon a bomb-proof bat
terry. With scarcely perceptible
shadow of down upon their upper
lip, they confronted prejudice,
braved ridicule, sneers, sarcasm,
and reproach, lived through it all,
suffered nothing, and fulfilled the
designs of Providence in their Gre
alton. For this let them have
honorable mention.
The phenomenon of a NOUS
tache upon an untravelled native
born youth, was formerly held to
imply an intense exercise of the
mind of the owner upon that par
ticular appendage of his person.
Patience, solicitude, watchfulness,
painful perplexity, and frequent
misgivings were supposed to at
tend its growth. Great skill and
judgment were also deemed nee
essary to its proper training-a
constant and dexterous manipula-
ton with thumb and finger, with in
cidental aids in the way of brush
es, combs, spittle, &c., amounting
altogether to an outlay Of time,
as well as physical and mental en-
ergy, which really seemed waste
full. Aheavy beard and moustache
upon the face of a middle-aged or
elderly adult used to indicate great
eccentricity. The wearer was re-
garded as geological curiosity-a
fresh importation from some new
Undiscovered country of the anti
podes-an adventurer-a Calilor-
MIA miner-a fanatic spiritualist-
a something evidently different
from the ordinary phases Of hui
mainly. Here public sentiment
seemed to anchor for awhile, when
various causes combined to give a
new and sudden impulse to the
hirsute movement, and ever since
the motto has been "EXcelsior."
Old fogies, who have been reaping
their boards for a quarter Of a GEN.
fury, their faces hacked and scar
red with razor-cuts innumerable,
have many of them laid aside the
weapons of their rebellion, (but
whether from motives of econo-
my or increasing regard for new
theories and the moral fitness of
things, is not clear.)
A recent writer, with an excess
of zeal in behalf of razors, has as
serted that no American Of COM
mandingintellect ever wore a NOUS
tache; as much as to say that with
Americans intellectual superiority
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