The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-09-20
LONG HAIR AND SHORT.


10 wear his hair long, and he tells the Corin-
thlans SO in his first epistle to them. On the
other hand, Huychius, Patriarch of Jerusa-
lem, q. ID. 600, declared the outward visible
signs of manly perfection to consist in an
ample beard and in hair flowing down the
shoulders
In remote ages, the Persans, who now have
their heads shaved were hairy. Darius had a
most luxuriant poll and Alexander, who con-
quered him, probably paid few visits to the
hair-cutters in the course of his life. AL
cibiades and his clique of r0ues introduced
the effeminate fashion of long hair into
Greece. Before their time the Athenians
were T0uRdhedds, aud it is fair to suppose
that Aristides the just, who did not pride
himself above measure on his devotion to the
Graces sported a crop of bristles and ignored
comb. Heroditus relates that in token
of mourning, the Persians were wont to cut
off not only their own hair but the names of
their horses. The same historian tells us
that the Argians, being defeated by the Lace
demonians, made a sacrifice of their locks,
and vowed that they would remain shorn as
long as they had not reconquered Thyrea
At Sparta, Lycurgus had decreed the wearing
of long hair; but this law, to which Plutarch
alludes, was never much obeyed. The Spar
fans when they attained their sixteenth
year did as the young Athenians, and
burned their hair upon the altar of either
barbarians who used to come from across the
seas in those times wore flowing locks, and
the Greeks had no wish to resemble them.
Our primitive ancestors, the Britons, and
like them the Gauls allowed their hair to grow
undisturbed. 1t often reached below the waist
and men like Caractacps must have looked
curiosities. Conqueref by the Romans, the
Gauls and Britons were ANONYMOUSLY clipped.
In his enumeration of the Gallic tribes led
into captivity by Cesar, Lucian speaks of the
Liguses s'now shorn but erewhile possessed
of an abundant mass of hair" Those of the
Gauls who obtained their liberation hastened
to let their hair grow again; in order the more
to mark the Importance they attached to flow
ing locks, they took to shaving their slaves. 1t
is thus that Ausonius speaks of four young
boys and four young girls, all shorn as being
customary present to a rich Gaul on his we'd
ding-day At the beginning of the fifth century
Pharamond established his kingdom in the
province which thenceforth took the name of
France. The Gauls were reduced to state of
bondage, and the conquerors laid ruthless scis-
sors upon their victims polls. From this time it
became generally understood thing all over
Europe that long hair was the exclusive appan-
age of the great and noble. Not only serfs,
but free peasants and burgesses, were for
bidden to go about otherwise than cropped.
The glebe slaves on a nobleman's estate were
even (during the fifth, sixth, and seventh
centuries) shorn altogether; and it is from
this custom that the practice of saluting by
taking off the hat arose. The act of uncover
ing the head amounted to saying-"See, sir;
I am your servant; have no hair.
When nobleman was convicted OF any
felonious otfense, the razor was invariably
applied to his pate. Clotaire the First, King
of France, caused his own son, Gondebaud,
to be shorn for conspiring against him. And
by way of adding to the disgrace of this SEN
ha al off on
edict condemning to the severest penalties
any one who should by stealth or violence cut
off the hair of an honest man.
When the harsh ferocity of the early
Gothic times had little subsidized, and
when Christianity had introduced a few
humane notions into the minds of men,
certain plebeians began to murnur al
the obligation of wearing bristles. At that
period the large majority of priests and church
dignitaries were sprung from the people
the scholars, masters of schools, and public
professors, were also ''churls' or ''knaves"-
as it was the polite fashion to call them; anC
as for the lawyers, clerks, petty magistrates
and government secretaries, there was mo-
one of them but was of base blood. Still
these base-blooded people formed the mos
intelligent part of the nation, and it was
humiliating to them to have no hair, while
jolter-headed boobies in armor who coul(
neither read nor write, were wearing matted
locks all down their backs. GOD save thu
mark But why did not these refectine
s'knaves" push their reasoning little further
Why did they not raise cry against al
other privileges, and so nip many injustices
which have grown up rank for centuries
But, we suppose, there is time for every
thing. The hair question assumed disquiet
ing proportions in France, for in the yea
1901, Pierre Lombard, Archbishop of Pari
(whose own head left much to be de
sired in the matter off capillary adornment
become their champion. He was a learne
and a good man. No doubt he had oftel
pondered in the silence of the closet upol
the unseemly appearance of his close-clippe
crown, and he took up the cudgels like ma
determined to win. The King of France o
that time was the gallant Philip the Second
generally known as Philip Augustus He wa
not by any means a monarch averse to pre-
gress, for he had already excited no littl
dissatisfaction amongst his subjects by in
sisting that they should wash. He ha
erected extensive bath-houses and the peopl
had been politely requested to make use
them as one of the best preservatiyes agains
scurvy and fever, which then had hold upo
all the working classes. Philip Augustus
after giving the matter his most a
tentive consideration, signed the Magn
Charta of capillary liberty at about the tim
when his royal compeer, John of England
was pulling a dismal face over the Charter {
Runnymede. Generally speaking the Englis
follow the French in the matter of persons
adornment, but in this case we had been bt
forehand with our neighbors. So early as th
reign of Henry the Second, our plebeian for,
fathers had obtained exemption from th