The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1883-05-04
The vagrant whisker.

The Vagrant Whiskers
The mutations of time and thu
Changes of custom have affected moth
ing more than the hirsute appurtenanct
Of the manly face. And it may with
safety be asserted that the fashion o.
the beard has not been without its IN
fuence on the destinies of not only
men but nations. Indeed, the question
of hair has been at all times so inter
esting, often of such vital moment, that
it has become twisted into the politics
of governments, carved into the thrones
of monarchies, and threaded through
the chronicles of time from Deuteron.
omy to the Dude. What the beard
should be or should not be has not al.
ways been a matter of choice with the
individual seized of the productive pro
priety in the beard, for not until com.
paratively recent date has there been
anything like free exercise of taste in
this direction. a,} l.-. %
Sometimes the restrictions were arbi-
trary, sometimes the result of wise pre-
caution, or a necessary regulation; but
at all times the authoritative fiat has
been regarded as an Infringement OF
natural privilege, inasmuch as the bar
barian idea that an unshorn beard was
the surest badge of liberty was hard to
crowd from the civilized mind. The
amplitude of sprouting virility has in il
the very soul of dignity, as any profane
Mohammedan who swears by the beard
of the Prophet will assure you. 1t is a
wonder with speculative minds, there
fore, that there are now fewer full
boards worn than there were at a time
when it was hazardous to appear with
other than the close warrior cut or the
T-shaped affair of imperial preference.
1t but shows that where liberty is I'M
trammeled principles often fall into
decay, and the man who would defend
with life the fecund profit of his chin
were it attacked will, master of his acts.
yield to the shears of fashion what he
withholds from the razor of decree.
To over-nice social devotees the un.
trimmed flowing beard, the vagrani
whisker, is a thing not well to be en-.
dured.. A Belgian Colonel, cognizani
os the fact that primal choice runs still
that way, exhorts bis soldiers to have a
care of these lawless hairs, since il
compromises the dignity of the uni.
form to wear beard like the fringe OF
al orang-outang's muzzle." 1t is this
reflection, no doubt, that limits the
quantity of facial observation in these
days when, since the abandonment OF
arms as the noblest pursuit, boudoil
puppets are left to set the cut that grave
men follow. Some men, it is true, find
as much qualification Of personal vanity
in their sesquipedalian boards as womer
do in the luxuriant tresses that flow
from their crowns sufficient raiment
for chastity. But there are few meu
able to cultivate such a crop of hair,
and it is very proper that authority OF
some sort step in as mediator between
their example and the easier require
ment of style. 1t is unfortunate. how
ever, that classification is ignored in
the fashion of boards.
. There was time when mustache
would have thrown an English coun
into paroxysms, and upset the decorum
Of bench of big wigs. Now they are
commonly worn by English barristers.
though there are some elder-day
brethren who regard the habit as con.
temptuous fling at the sanctity Of JUS
tice. These fOgies, who are prescrva
tives of protoplasm, must turn for con-
ISOLATION to the tavern-keeper of Berlin
who has enjoined the mustache from
among the walters and male
servants of the hotel. And what wou'C
become of a Partisan cafe wherein
a garcon bobbed a mustache oveI
his tray of edibles Mustache
and garcons are q contradiction ir
terms, and there are the French clergy
and the French walters alike. The
moral distinction does not appear in the
aspect of the face. Priests of that coun.
try are, indeed, allowed to follow the
set by Richelieu, and the natty
rOyale is not uncommon. The amount
of envy and discomfort resident in the
heart of one who is of necessity tribu-
tary of the razor can hardly be imagined
by the citizens of this free-bearded coun
try. .. ..
Next to the French the English have
under the blade and lather o.
Each monarch had his
own idea of how the beard should be
worn, and where he did no more thar
set the example yet controlled the prac.
tice of the million. The advent of gooC
Queen Victoria, with no especial devel
opment in that direction, was an unwrit
ten act of emancipation, and RELOCATED
the hairy slavery to the army Now
nine in ten of the bold Britons of civil
life do not shave at all, or, if they do.
it is at the instance of their own sweet
wills. Yet for all that there still exists
a prejudice against the flippancy of the
even in this country. A com.
old fellow of Berks County, Pa.
gave up the ghost but recently and left
awill. In it he disinherited such of his
male descendants as persist in wearing
1t remains. to be seen
his heirs will be as Spartan in
devotion to the fringe of their upper Lip
as was the young Russian who not long
ago died in defense of his. He had been
by the Gar to obey regulations
and shave off his mustache. Heobeyed,
sending the carefully preserved hairs tc
his royal master. The next day his body
was fished out of the rivers He had
been unable to endure his shameful
ago Inter Ocean.