Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1884-03-06
HIRsuTE ADoRnmENr.
A Short History of Beards-When
Worn and When TabOOed.

mans lace is luSI rs uckl6 anu CndnStd-
BILE as the fashion that rules the cut of his
coat. 1t has always been so; there has
always been significance attached to
boards since men first discovered that ma
ture planted hair upon their chins as a
sign of their manhood. Among many
nations they were regarded as sign of
strength. The natives of Hindostan, al
though they often represent the various
deities of their religion as beardless, to
this day have no respect for the man SO
unfortunate as to have little or no beard.
It has always been so in the mysterious
and unchanging East. The same respect
attached to the beard among the ancient
Phenicians, Assyrians and Egyptians.
The Arabs dyed their boards many colors.
The Persian kings of old interwoye
threads of gold in their luxuriant boards.
The Egyptians venerated the beard
Priests wore theirs, and so indeed did
mobiles and slaves alike. Some of the
Egyptian statues represent men with
their boards in a case. There are also
images found of men without boards,
which are supposed to be those Of the
rulers who in this way marked their
lofty station. Many of the mummies
found by the way, are of men wearing
short chin tuft exactly like that of the
Yankee as represented in pictures
other proof that fashion simply repeats
itself. The ancient Greek wore full
boards before the time of Alexander the
Great. He abolished them as affording
an enemy something to grasp in battle.
Fighting in those days was hand to hand.
The Germans of two orthree thousand
years ago allowed their boards to grow un-
til they had killed man in battle, when
the fortunate victor's shaven cheeks were
envied by his bearded companions. The
Britons of Caesars time wore simply
large, flowing mustache, while the Danes
and Norsemen were full bearded, long
haired, fierce men. Cesar set the fashion
of shaving among the Romans, or rather,
ordered it. Pompey, also, was another
of the very few great characters of that
time whose face was made bare of hair
by the razor. With all their civilization
the Romans did not begin to use the
razor till Christianity dawned.
"Clergymen have always, until recent
years, had the fashion of their boards
dictated, either by church law or by
usage, and even by statute. Pope Leo
III. distinguished himself from the Greek
patriarch by a shaven face. Thirty years
later the ascetic Gregory enjoined pen
atty on every bearded priest. There are
not wanting, however in the long line of
popes, one or two who were bearded lux
urantly. In the twelfth century public
opinion ran high against boards. The
Vatican forbade them to all classes.
Even monarchs were compelled to shave
Henry l., of England, was inveighed
against by priest because he refused
to use the razor, and the monarch shaved.
Frederick of Barbarossa had similar ex-
pertinent, yielding as gracefully to public
sentiment and priestly threats. Louis
VII, of France, was refused absolition
unless he shaved, but this threat was not
executed. Pope Honorius III. in the
thirteenth century allowed his beard to
grow to conceal facial tumor, and
the men of Europe threw aside their
razors with a sigh of relief. For
two or three centuries there
after boards were general. All the he
roes, military and otherwise, of those
times wore full boards. Louis XIII. of
France and Philip v. of Spain were de-
MED beard by nature, and on the ac-
cession of these two monarchs razors
came in fashion again. Francis I. of
France taxed the boards of priests, and
the college of Sorbonne in 1861 decided
that boards and sacerdotalism were in
consistent. In Henry the Fourth's time
boards were worn in many different styles.
Still more were popular in Elizabeth's
reign, when the different social ranks
were each denoted by peculiar fashion
of the beard. There was the forked, the
dagger, the mushroom, and the crescent,
and several equally odd shapes gwen to
the beard just before the Stuarts assembled
the throne. The beard of that day is to
be seen in the Vandyke pictures mus
tache and imperial, both small and lend.
ing an air of high-born distinction to the
wearer. The beard was highly priced at
this time and later. It was theme for
writers, prose and poetical. The works
Of every sixteenth century writer abound
with reference to it. A gentle
mans dressing table at that time
was covered with all sorts of
instruments. tweezers, brushes, combs,
ointment, powder and perfume for dress
ing his beard Shortly afterward-about
the beginni,g g of the eighteenth century
shaving began. A beardless king set
the fashion. 1t spread over the west of
Europe, and for 1876 years smooth-shaven
faces were the rule In Russia Peter the
Great about this time imposed tax on
Boards Kings and commons shaved Wig
orously for more than century, when
about 1915, after the battle of Waterloo,
military men in England adopted a
fashion that had ruled among NapoIeon's
marshals, of allowing some Of the hair on
their faces to grow. Public opinion
frowned at it. A mustache was disrepu-
table, and for twenty years none dared to
refrain from the razor Then tho exUalls