Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1885-03-05
The Wearing of the Beard.

IL Is uOU only NIIillu inc Lucu1OLy Ol
the coolest inhabitant, but of persons
of mature life, that beard upon the
face was not only questionable, but
sign of mental weakness of ''crank-
mess" more noticeable a great deal
than man is nowadays with long cur
ly hair falling to his shoulders
In the popular prints, such as those
of the American Washington
Irving, Cooper and others; pictures of
the American Senate, with portraits of
Clay, Webster, Calhoun, Cass and their
contemporaries absence of boards
and mustaches is quite marked to the
eyes of one accustomed to the hirsute
fashion of to-day.
The mustache was especially obnox-
iouS; on clergyman, an abomination.
No minister could have had or kept
pulpit with such an ornament on his
face. On the face of a layman it was
considered effeminate and dandified-
the type of what are now known as
''dudes." IF you ever come into my
house wearing a mustache when you
grow up" said a gentleman to his
nephew, then beardless by nature in
stead of art, Il will turn you out of
doors" But by the time the boy was
able to produce mustache the edict
against them had been annulled and
they had become quite common. A
few abolitionists and Spiritualists wore
long boards, but the most allowed on
the face was a neat tuft of whiskers
just below the ear, like that which
Nice-President Hendricks still exhibits.
A e Il h.
found on a tombstone in Worcester
County, Massachusetts, at the grave of
a man who died in 1873, aged "a years.
On the diverse of his monument may
be read the words: ''Persecuted for
wearing his beard" If the traditions
about his life and experiences are trust
worthy, no martyr ever suffered much
more for his fondest religious belief
than ''Old jew Palmer" did for his
beard. He was not an ''old Jew"
at all, but was called SO fifty years ago
on account of his long and venerable
beard. He, was looked upon as a
monster and fiend, and his name was
used to brighten children with.
Everybody else was shaved clean; so
he was hooted at in the streets, talked
about in the country store, bullied by
his neighbors, wrestled with by the
clergyman, in the vain hope that he
would consent to follow Samson's ex-
ample and ''be as other men" by hav,
ing his hair cut.
Once four men arrived with shear
laid violent hands on him for the pur
pose of removing the obnoxious APP
pendage whether or no. He struggled
against his fate, but was nearly over
powered, when he drew his jack-knife
and freed himself by stabbing two of
his assailants in the legs.
For refusing to pay the fine imposed
he remained in Jail over a year, but
was finally released.
His wearing a beard was probably
not his only, even if his chief, offense
He was violent anti-slaverv man, and
believed in total abstinence, so that his
beard was partly a pretext for his
treatment. His refusal to furnish liq-
uor to his men in the hay field also
made him very unpopular. And a good
deal Of light is thrown upon the liquor
question Of that time by mothers re-
fusal on this account to let her bov
work for him. He is too mean to al
low the boys little liquor" she said.
The wearing of the beard itself in
those days, although considered bar
barous and outlandish, was generally
the mode of a broad protest against the
whole established order of things;
whether it was slavery, liquor drinking
or male suffrage. The long hair and
beard were the reforms which their
wearers adyocated-wha the red flag
is to communism, or the wearing of
the green to Irish independence.-De-
t1'o5t Free Press.