The Penn's Grove record., 1883-09-15

len, it mis- ht b, argued that Motl or
Eve might not have ItfoT5 ii to fig
leav 5 ( she had known J alf as much
OF the mantua makers ant and hlir-
dresser's trade as Lady Go Iva. The
Greeks did not shave, and the sculpt-
ured types of the greatest representa-
lives of the nation which surpassed all
antiquity in philosophy, literature and
art, have long locks and luxuriantly
growing boards. Socrates and Plato,
for instance, are always represented
with plenty hair on their heads and
faces. The later Romans shaved, and
mighty Cesar's head on the coins
which bear his image is almost as bald
as his face, but this was in the degener
ate period OF Rome. IL its earlier and
better days Corianolanus wore a beard,
ard the Brutus who expelled the Tar
quins cultivated "a considerable crop of
whiskers. The Son of Man and the
Savior of the Il wore "A beard, and in
the great painting of 1.-The Last Sup
PERI all the disciples appear with whis-
kers which would make the most skill
full tonsorial artist weary after a half
hours work with Il keen razor. In me
dieval times and during tile age of chiv
airy the beard was held in high esteem
Martin Luther grew a beard, and the
reformed religion grew, ami the rule of
shaver polls and priests has declined
ever since. Who that knows Sir Wal
ter Scott and the other good clIroniclers
of that time ever read of a knight who
did not boast of his long and sweeping
mustaehes, and who did not swear by
the locks OF his LADY, The fact is that
the habit Of shaving only began to be
popular at the beginning of the last
century, when lecheIy aud effeminacy
began to rule under the Louises Of
France II the Georges Of England
and Threatened to overflow the world,
until it was checked by Voltaire and
Rousseau and Danton and Marat and
Robespierre All the Great English
men of the 18th century Wore boards.
Shakespeare had one and so had Sin
Walter Raleigh and Sir Francis Drake,
the three great men of the EliZlhethan
era. Even under The weakling Stuarts,
who succeeded the great daughter OF
the House of Tudor, hairy growths up
ON the face were held in high regard.
The portrait OF Charles the inst,
whose head Was cut off in front of
Whitehall, as it was painted by Van
dyke and survives to this day, repre-
seDts a noble gentleman whose mustach
es and chin whistler ale only exceeded
in beauty by those of the great Dutch
painter himself. Cromwell, The Lord
Protector, wore whiskers, even if that
greater man, his blind secretary, the
poet Milton, did not.
The fact is that the beard is and al
ways has been a sign of masculinity
dIlI Il by LullgH IoI intIildl ollcllSlH.
The average man cannot afford to dis
pense with it. Without it he is relegat
ed to the ranks of womanliood and be-
comes a member of the feebler sex. 1t
is only the great men of the world who
can promenade it with shaven faces
and pass unchallenged. Caesar and
Bonspsrte, and Washington aud Jeffer
son, and Disraeli and jeremiah 5.
Black could, but lesser mortals must
have some mark to distinguish and es-
tablish their sex.
To shave or NOT to shave is therefore
a question which is hot as important
as modern dudedom considers it. In
the new light of the precedentS We
have vuoted the man who refuses TO
submit himself thrice "A week TO the
tortures of the average'tonserial artist
can retort upon the individual who
asks him every Monday morning how
much he owes his barber withthe query,
"How much do you to your ances-
tors, monkey aud mollucks for oysters
have beards), aid civilization and
health, for having your face scraped
three times "a day?"-Er.