The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1868-08-15
ON moustachrs ana boards.

mundane sphere have taken a certain
sort Of pride in cultivating that hairy
appendAge which has been anglicised
from the French into what we call q
moustache:
From what was once supposed to be
a proper respect for that Nature which
induced hair to sprout upon mans
perlip, the practice of wearing NOUS
taches nowadays has grown TO be
scarcely anything more than a mere
matter of taste.
There is, In fact, a certain model, or
standard of style, and men cherish
this growth In sympathy with such
style, and not without, any recogni-
ton ofthe natural law, which describes
| moustaches as conducive to health.
The simplicity Of the patriarchal days
would sit awkwardly upon fop of
the nineteenth century. Fashion has
swallowed up antiquity Father
Kemp's widow would die in poor
house ifshe should attempt to sell bon
nets to fashionable Gotham. The
world moves, women move, men move,
moustaches move; and it would move
man 10 madness to ask him to
lengthen or shorten its growth contrary
to style. .---.r
That Nature intended man to wear a
full beard and mustache, Is evident
from the fact that she made them grow
upon his face, but in accordance with
the laws of that powerful mistress,
'tFashiou, - they are now cut and worn
In all conceivable shapes. That boards
are great protection of health cannot be
denied. yet many who greatly need
them are those who wear them least.
Why a minister should not let the hir-
suite appendage on his face grow as well
as another man, is puzzle. 1t may be
partially accounted for from the, fact
that it is not fashionable in that pro-
fession, possibly from the reason Civ
en- by an old Methodist minister. at
makes religious men look too worldly"
This may do very well for these days.
but in the time of the Patriarchs this
doctrine would have been heresy. And
even since then, in some countries,
Persia In particular, no man was al
lowed TO sit in council who had not a
flowing beard. Hence the desire of a
young mans heart was to grow that
emblem of wisdom as rapidly as pos
sibIe. Boards, among Eastern nations,
have always been admired and respect
ed, and the greatest toilet-care a Turk
bestows is upon his beard, and that he
respects it is undoubted. by the
beard of my ancestors" is his clinchiDg
oath. One stupid reason why some
very young men do not let their boards
grow is, that some ladies do rot admire
them. ! n Spain there is a proverb, that
face without mustache is like an egg
without salt.
One of the first longiugs Of a boys
heart is for the down on The face to be-
gin to sprout, that he may patronize a
barber,and put on the airs of man;
and his happiness is complete when he
can play with tuft on his chin.
Standing on prominent corner the
other day, the writer of this article took
the trouble to note The various styles of
beard of those who passed him. a
memoranda ofstxty-three reads as fol-
lows:
"Seven full boards with mustache.
Eleven full boards without mustache.
Four side whiskers without mustache.
Nine side whiskers with mustache.
Two imperiGls without mustache. One
imperial wItE mustache. Two COATES
with mustache. Twenty-Five mus
taches alone, seven of which were worn
short to the lip. Four were worn by
being drawn out at the ends, a la Ma
poleon. Two were curled up at the
euds, and nine looked like small roofs
built over the mouth, and suggested the
fact that the best way to feed their
owners would be to stand them upon
their heads"
What these statistics prove, we refer
to Quetelet and his disciples. These are
the facts, not bald facts either, and to
them may be added that almost every
adult man who passed the observer had
some sort or semblance of beard.
y