Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1881-12-15
THE CHAIRS OF ALL THEaCES.
Boards. Whiskers, Nonstaches and I'm.
periAls from Early Egyptian
Days Till NOW.


originally ornamental. and the bearded man be-
ing popular in primitive society selected the
tairest women; his offspring resembled him.
aad SO on. Certain it is that wearing the beard
was in the oldest times all the fashion, In an
cient India, Persia and Assyria full boards were
worn and were esteemed as symbolical of dig
nifty and wisdom. According to the old Euyp-
tian pictures shaving was common practice in
the land of the pyramids, or. at least, the fire.
quent absence of the beard among kings and
priests is noticed as a sort of Indication OF rank
HerodOtus says that for clean shaving the
priests :" gave u certain sacred reason which We
do not think it lawful to disclose" probably be-
cause he did not know it: At any rate the
Egyptians may be said to furnish the earliest in
stances of 1.-The priest all shaven aud shorn.''
Their Libyau neighbers. on the other hand
were heavily bearded and their maritime enc
mies-prebably the early Greeks-were rather
thin yellow boards. poran contends that
these same Greeks were shaven and
called all alien and bearded races
"barbarOus, connecting the word with bdrbd
but Homer and the Egyptian monuments are
against him. The Assyrian kings wore enor-
nous boards. oiled and CURED in tiers or stories
and some OF them treasured these appendageS
in jewelled cases. The chosen people repre-
scented Adam with luxuriant beard as
Homer gives Jupiter, father of gods and men, i'm
the lliad. and always chung to their boards with
particular attc ction and jealousy. To mar the
corners Of the beard was an offence against their
law. The fugitive who reverentay raised his
hand to the beard might hope for succor: to
swear by it-as young Uric i'll Schller's fine
ballad swears by that of his father, Eberhard
the Observation-Disclosures to take a most sacred
Oatn; for stranger to touch it was an insult
and 1t was the sign of supreme affection for
children and kinsfOlk to touch it gently or kiss
it. Thus it was that Joab slew the unsuspecting
Amasa. To cut an envoy beard was GROWING
ehrOnt-lt was like insulting the ambassadors
flag. According to the legendary history of
Rome, the massacre of the Senate was precpi-
tated by the act of the Gaul who, in his mingled
awe and admiration laid hands on a Senator's
beard to see whether or not the Senator was a
majestic statue. and all readers will recall the re-
tort to the .Mussuiman despot Of the Christian
envoy, IF my master had known you set
SO much account by a beard he would have sent
you goat.
Alexander the Great is credited with having
introduced shaving during his Asatic wars.
having noticed that the beard afforded conve-
nient handle for the enemy; this was the orgi-
nal lighting cut" and the first instance of
military regulation concerning hirsute append
ages. The Greeks not only employed razor, but
''sharp pitch-plasters." They sent the fashion
ricanus the younger was the first gentleman of
note to shave daily. In Caesars time a slight
goatee or moustache. assiduOusly cultivated. was
the thing for young man of fashion. Whereas
tearing the hair had been sign of mourning
IN Rome letting the beard grow was the Ortho-
dOx method of celebrating a public calamity
The Roman emperOrS shaved until the time of
Hadrian. who let his beard grow to hide an
ugly scar The difficulties which Nero expert
enced in making his toilet are familiar to most
readers-ndeed an interesting article might be
written on the subject of BARRIERS and despots.
From Rome the habit of shaving was carried
all over Central and Northern Europe where
wearing the beard had been the universal Gus
tom. According to Tacitus the ancient Ger
mans cultivated the beard till they had killed an
enemy in battle-''taken a scalp The Bayeux
tapestry shows the NOrmans close-shaven as to
cheeks, lips and chin. Harold and most of the
English wear the mOustache, and the only
bearded folk are Edward the ConfessOr and FIVE
men on the Norman side. Long, shaggy hair
and enormous tangled moustaches had been in
vogue among the ancient Brirons. On the in
PRODUCTION OF Christianity the clergy among the
AnglO-Saxons had to shave, and after the Con-
quest one OF the grievances against William was
his suppression of the. English mOustache. Shay
ing, by the clergy especially, was sort of pro-
test against Judaism and Islam. though the
early Christian fathers had followed the Jewish
custom and prescribed the retention ofthe beard.
Clement of Alexandria. Cyprian. Jerome and
ChrySOStOm were among the controyerSialiSts on
this great question over which the Greek and
Roman churches fought. and which later so ex-
ercised the Belgian refOrmers that they would
tain have elected ali save the shaven from their
ranks. The pOpes frequently promulgated de-
crees and set fashions but not all of the same
sort. The gallant julius H.. victor over the
Venetans and French. allowed his beard to
grow when he assembled the papal throne i'm
1903 and set fashion that was followed over
the Christian world. Francis l. of France copy
ing him, as he had received an ugly wound in
the face from brand of blazing wood i'm
Twelfth Night frOlic. Up to that time the beard
had led q checkered existence in France. After
the battle of TOlbiac, where Clovis thrashed the
later Alaric SO sOundly. the c0nquerer sent word
to the yanquishedtO come and touch his beard
make an alliance-but Alaric, instead, caught
the Frankish ENJOYS by the beard and sent them
back. swearing furiously by the violated append
ages to have their revenge, which was prompt
and bloody. Thereafter France saw boards of
all sorts-lOng. Short round. pointed, square,
braided, woven with gold thread spangled with
pearls-until the era of shaven chns was
closed by Francis l. and the influence of the
Renaissance Louis Wis shaving, it may
be remembered. was a serious act for
himself and his country. With his fair chestnut
beard he was barely tolerated by his wife, Flea
nor of Cayenne, and when he shaved it off a
broil began, which ended in their divorce her
remarriage to Henry ii. of England. to whom
She brought Potion and Guyenne as dOwry.
and war which ravaged France for three cen
turtles and cost the lives of three millions of
men. Under Henry III. of France shaven chins
were in vogue, with the mOustache and long
neoucte On the lower lip. which under Napoleon
of imperial. Under Henry ". square boards
ruled, and Louis XIII. favored small imperial
with curled moustaches. The n,ouche was in
fashion under Louis XIV. but little or no beard
and the razor was used relentlessly under the
next two kings, the republic. the directory and
the restoration. Charles V. followed Pope
Juius's lead into the ranks of beard-wearers
while Philip ", being unable to raise a beard
himself, discouraged the wearing of boards by
his cOurtiers, who lamented that with their
boards had gone their souls. 'All the gold in
the world, said the brave Portuguese admiral,
Juan de Castro, to the mayor of Goa, cannot
equal this natural ornament Of my valor." and
he pointed to one of his uXuriant whiskers, and
the mayor was SO deeply impressed that he lent
him a thousand pistOles on the pledge thereof.
England generally followed the fashion set BY
France. Though one of the poets has celebrated
the beard of Henry VIII. and declared that
"a well-thatched face is colnely grace,
And shelter from the cold"
that monarch published an edict against Boards
and Elizabeth ordained that every beard of
above fortnight's growth should pay an annual
tax of three-and-fOur-peH feature borrowed
by Peter the Great. who taxed the boards OF his
peasant subjects a eopeck year and charged
Weather ones hundred rOutles. say So On
the Continent magistrates, grave burghers and
other worthy folk had long made a practice of