The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1884-05-24
Concerning Boards.


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There is a good deal of recrimination,
more or less amiable, between men and
women, on the question which of the two
sexes is more under the slavery of fashion.
Men, doubtless, have much to say on their
side Their fopperies in dress are foolish
enough, and have been at times almost in
credibly silly-witness the shoes with curl
ing toes in which the handles in the days
of the early Plantagenets rejoiced-but, on
the whole, they do not match the extrava-
gances of female taste. And then, there is
tight lacing, practice to which, while ar
lists vainly proclaim that it disfgures the
form, and physicians to as little purpose
declare that it is unhealthy, the women OBJ
stinately cling. But then, on the other
hand, the history of the beard is terrible
record of male folly. If some inhabitant of
superior sphere were called down to hear
the case, as in Leigh Hunts apologize the
angel is called in to arbitrate between the
Man and the Fish, what would he say when
it was thus presented? Here is natural
growth, which is commonly allowed to be
ornamental, which certainly conceals what
are often the weaker and least shapely parts
of the face, which helps to protect import
ant organs of life, the removal of which is
tedious, painful, and, in possibility at least,
dangerous-was not Dionysius compelled to
SINCE off his beard with hot walnut shells
for fear of letting razor approach his tyr
aunous throat ?-and yet at various epochs
sundry nations have agreed, as far as might
be, to remove it, and not only this, but to
make its removal test of mental sanity
and moral goodness. 1t is this last fact,
the bigotry, so to speak, which has COM
monty been associated with this fashion,
that makes the history of the beard so
strange, and, we may venture to say, so
humiliating a record. Does it not seem
absolutely incredible that not more than
quarter Of century ago Archbishop TAFT,
then Bishop of London, an exceptionally
liberal prelate, actually forbade one of his
clergy, a man of the highest character, to
read prayers In his own church on the oc-
easion of a confirmation, because he had the
sense to let the hair grow on his upper lip;
and that Lord Justice Knight Bruce abso-
lutely refused to hear, in fact ignored the
presence of bearded young barrister who
attempted to address him; and that in
case well known to the present writer all
the dignifed machinery of the governing
body of a school was called in by the head
master to compel an ipnovating colleague
to shave?
These instances are striking, because
they are recent, but the whole history of
the subject is full of the most curious
anomalies. In earlier antiquity the wearing
of the beard was, with the exception of
Egypt, where the priests certainly were
shaven, universally customary. 1t was,
indeed, held to be peculiarly sacred. To
touch it was to make the most solemn app
peal possible to compassion "a fact possibly
connected with the helplessness of man
so grasped), The Greeks recognized, in
deed, o peculiar type of beauty in the
beardless Apollo; but this feature was GER
tainly part of their ordinary conception
of the manly form, and they certainly did
not, as DIR. Doran supposes strangely mis-
led by an analogy of sound, "style as bar
barians unshayed savages, all nations who
were out of the pale of their own GUS
toms and religion" Encyclopedia Brit
tanica, edition 1860 Shaving, how
ever seems to have become common
after the best days of Greece had past,
Alexander the Great is represented with a
beardless face; and he is said to have made
his Macedoniaas daft their boards, as af-
fording dangerous hold to the enemy in
close combat 1t was certainly one of the
Greek fashions that made their way into
Rome and after long struggle it seems to
have prevailed. BARRIERS from Sicily are
said to have settled in the city as early as
300 B. c, Conservatives, such as Cato the
Elder, seem to have Gercely resisted the
change. Scipio Africanus the Younger is
said to have been the first who shaved
daily. But the fashion prevailed, The
heads of the great Romans Of the last age
of the republic are beardless; and the GUS
tom seems TO have continued during
the early empire To be able to grow
beard was, of course, sign of manly years,
and the young Romans cultivated it as dill
gently as an ambitious lad among our
selves; but to cut it off was necessary
sacrifice to custom, though, if we may
Judge from an expression In one of Cicero's
letters, there was class of ultra-fashion-
able youths who wore a small beard Au-
gustus, the Elder Pliny tells us, always
used the razor. Bearded" became
synonym for something old.fashioned, and
even silly. The philosophers, however,
still were champions of nature, though
not always creditable champions, as they
were often believed to make the beard
and its accompaniment, the cloak, serve
in the stead both of wisdom and vir-
tue. Some Of the empeEors, however, after
the end of the first century of our era,
seem to- have worn the beard. Julian, in
the fourth century, being conspicuous
example. In our own country, the Eng
fish before the Conquest were commonly
bearded, though the Norman fashion of
shaving was creeping in, just as the Greek
fashion had crept into Rome. Gan army
of priests" was the report brought back
by Harold's spy from the camp of the iu-
yadeEs. The conquerors Of Seniac seem
to have imposed their custom Of shaving
upon the conquered, and it was one of the
grievances of the English under their
new masters that they were compelled
to shave. After two centuries, how
ever, boards again asserted their right
to exist The portraits of pre- efdrma-
ton founders of Oxford aud Cambridge
frequently display the beard; but it seems
to have gone partially out of fashion in the
DAYS of the Tudors. DIR. Doran tells us
that the benchers of Lincoln's Inn forbade
any bearded person to sit at table unless he
paid for double commons, Still, there are
conspicuous exceptions. The beard which
Sir Thomas Moore moved out of the way of
the executioners axe has become famous,
The appendage, too, must have been COM
mon, when Elizabeth thought it worth
while to impose tax on all who wore a
beard of more than a fortnight's growth.