Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1868-07-15
ON MUSTACHES AND Boards.

From Abr aham and Isaac to Louis
Napoleon, the male dwellers on this mum
dane sphere have taken certain sort of
pride in cultivating that hairy appendage
which has been anglicized from the
French into what we call mustache.
From what was once supposed to be a
proper respect for that Nature, which
first induced hair to sprout upon aman's s
upper lip, the practice of wearing mus
tache's nowadays has grown to be scarce
ly anything more than mere matter of
of state.
There is, in fact, certain model, or
standard of style, and men cherish this
growth IN sympathy with such style,
and not from any recognition of the ma
tural law, which prescribes mustaches as
conductive to health. The simplicity of
the patriarchal days would sit awkwardly
upon top of the nineteenth century
Fashion has swallowed up antiquity.
Father Kemp's widow would die in
poor house if she should attempt to sell
bonnots Eto fashionable Gotham The
world moves, women move, men move,
mustaches move; and it would move q
man to madness to ask him to shorten or
lengthen its growth contrary to styye.
That nature intended men to wear q
full beard and mustache is evident from
the fact that she has made them grow
upon his face, but in accordance with
the laws of that powerful mistress,
Fashion," they are now cut and worn
IN all conceivable shapes. That boards
are great protectors of health cannot be
denied, yet many who greatly need them
are those who wear them least. Why
minister should not let the llirsgte ap-
pendage grow on his face as well as an
9th her man is puzzle. 1t may be par
tally accounted for from the fact that it
is not fashionable in that profession, pos
slbly from the reason given by an old
Methodist minister: ''1t makes religious
men look too worldly"
This may do very we'll for these days,
but in the time of the patriarchs this
doctrine would have been heresy And
even since then, in some countries, Per
sia in particular, no man was allowed to
sit in council who had not flowing beard.
Hence, the desire Of young mans heart
was not to grow that emblem Of wisdom
as rapidly as possible. Boards among
Eastern nations, have always been admir-
ed and respected, and the greatest toilet
care Turk bestows is upon his beard,
and that he respects it is undoubted
';By the beard of my ancestors" is his
clinching oath. One stupid reason why
some very young men do not let their
boards grow is, that some ladies do not
admire them. In Spain there is
proverb, that a face without mustach is
lake an egg without salt
One of the first longings of boys
heart is for the down on his face to be-
gin to sprout, that he may patronize
barber and put on the airs of man !;
and his happiness is complete when he
| can play with q tuft on his chin.
Standing on a 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 memorandum of sixty-three reads as
follows:
Seven full boards with mustache.
Eleven full boards without mustache.
-Four side-whiskers without mustache.
Two imperlals without mustache One
imperial with mustache Five goatees
without mustache. Twenty-Five musta-
ches alone, seven of which worn short to
the lip. -Four were worn by being drawn
out at the ends, la Napoleon. Two
were curled up at the ends, and nine
looked like small roofs built over the
mouth, and suggested the fact 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 nau who passed the observer had
some sort or semblance Of a beard,
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