Mower County transcript., 1885-10-28
Hair and Beard.

Auu DeauCy uTd"S US WIN q SlnSle na1r,
No subject within the scope of human
science is really so unimportant, as to
general well being, and yet, the ques-
ton of the hair and beard, its ent and
color, has been more prolific of custom,
rule and law, than almost anything
connected with mankind.
The champions of long hair, and of
short hair, have ranged themselves un-
der separate banners, shed each others
blood, disturbed whole communities,
and made history for an idea that could
promote neither happiness nor con-
tentment for either side.
Families have been divided by it,
divorces have been granted in conse-
quence of it, and legislators, in all ages
but our own, have enacted laws to en-
force compliance with their own pc
culiar views in this trivial matter. Com
mon sense eventually regulated tho
affair and gave to every person the
right outside of the tyranny of fashions
whims to care for the exterior of his
head and to shape the natural cover
ing of his face according to individual
sentiment.
Ecclesiastical governments, adopt
ing St. Pauls declaration that "long
hair was an abomination unto a man.
have made a vigorous war against the
ated in opposition to it from the pulpit
as barbarOus, unclean and unholy; but
at the same time they have permitted,
tolerated and sold immunity from sins,
ex special gratia, not of the hair or
beard, but of the heart and mind and
conscience of greater enormity and
more worthy of denunciation and sup
preston.
Woman tresses have tuned the
poets Tyre, nervcd tho warriors steel
and drawn woeful sighs from the
lovers heart.
All other features are, to the cnthus-
iastic lover, subordinate-beauty, in
tellgence and goodness arc nothing.
His life and hopes are staked on her
voluptuous locks; he awakens from his
dream of bliss only when, in moment
of curiosity he discovers it is falsc-a
chignon.
Lank hair, among the ancients, was
sign of cowardice; auburn hair, or
light brown. evidenced great suscepti-
bility to the tender passion, as we'll as
for intelligence, industry and peace
fui disposition; black hair was not
highly esteemed, the possessors of it
being thought jealous and quarrel
some; red hair, in general, was an
aversion, mark of reprobation, even
before the time of Judas. GAS wicked
as red ass" was freely applied to any
one having bright red hair, and was a
popular and opprobrious saying, and,
to make the sentiment more binding,
one of that patient tribe of quadrupeds
was made to atone for it every year by
being thrown from high wall.
The Romans never adopted long
hair, as later nations did, deeming it
effeminatc and unbecoming. alike for
scholar, statesman or warrior. A few
of them may have done so, but it was
after they had ceased to be nation of
warriors and became scented courtiers.
Shaving, by the Roman youths, was an
event looked forward to, and COM
menced at about the age of 2l.
| The Franks wore long hair, which
was the distinguished mark of kings
and mobiles. An old historian remarks:
''The hair is never cut from the heads
of the Frankish Kings sons; it is part
ed on the forehead and falls equally on
both sides. They sprinkle their hair
with gold-dust after plating it in
small bands, which they orBamented
with pearls and precious metals
/ 1t has been written by some one that
| Dionysius, the tyrant, was so fearful
of violence that he would permit no
one to shave him, and he singed his
beard off with hot walnut shells. This
is, of course, an absurdlty. for the heat
required to singe would have burned
the shells; and so either the tyrant rid
himself of his beard in some other way,
or did not shave at all; probably the
latter.
The greatest prejudice has existed
against the wearing of the beard and
the style of the hair. Archbishop TAFT
forbade one of the clergy to ofliciate in
his own church because he had grown
a mustache. Lord Justice Knight
Bruce refused to hear the cause of a
barrister because be wore beard; and
numerous instances might be cited to
show the disfavor which the wearing
! of beard has excited.-Geo. p. G0f,
| 4. NJ, in the Insgleside.
|