The Ketchum keystone. [volume] (Ketchum, Idaho) 1885-1899, 1889-06-29
PROTECT THE MUsTACHE.

AS ~ G1l0 O1VClS Observation-Disclosures
regarding man to which women are
subjected from time to time were
not enough, a movement is now set
on foot for the abolition of that
godsend to the average male coun-
tenance, the mustache.
1fthis movement goes on, women,
instead of joining the crusade, as
advised in certain quarters, should
rather, in the interests Of our com
mon humanity, band together to
oppose the ill-timed innovation.
For the mission of the mustache
is unful6lled. There is no denying
it, the animal soul has left it's im-
press very broadly upon the "char-
acter-betraying upper lip" of the
average male creature. If this re-
cord is to be laid bare to our shud-
dering gaze universally, if we are
to walk the streets fanked right
and left by the relics of the crude
savagery of the race, if the lowest
instincts of mans nature are to be
thrust upon us so hideously in
church, ball or theater, contradict
ing the Illuminated eye and brow
at their highest movements, ideali-
cation of man will become impos-
sible and a relapse into barbarism
may be expected. E
For mans salvation depends in a
measure upon woman's ignorance
of his worst. If she is to help him
up to higher place she must be-
lieve all grand high possibilities
concerning him. She must work
the ''mind cure" wisdom and hold
him always in "silent thought" as
in near kinship to the divine soul.
But if the friendly mask is to be
removed prematurely and woman is
forced to realize how much of the
crude, and brutal even, still turks
under suave address and polished |
manner, social retrogression will
be inevitable.
The mustache can do no perma-
nent injury to the proportion of the
face, for the real evolution Of ideal
masculine beauty is from within.
But the elimination of the lower
nature proceeds slowly, and, mean
time, while the seven entities, of
which, according to the Oriental
wisdom, the spirit is composed, are
warning with each other, and the
divine soul in man is surely gain
ing ascendancy over the animal
soul and the rest of the menagerie,
in short, while the Browning race
of humankind" is coming to its
perfect flower, let the mustache, like
charity, hide multitude of sins.
OF course there are masculine
faces from which the dominating
spiritual soul has erased all impress
of the animal nature through sue
cessive embodiments, and these can
bear even the fierce light that beats
upon a throne" without flinching.
But in the present stage Of devel-
ment the great majority need the
concealment that Lends enchant-
mcnt."
A lady, whose married life was
lnfelicitous, why she scarcely un-
derstood, told me of the shock she
when her husband
came into her presence for the first
time with his upper lip bare to in
spection. Her ignorance had been
bliss. The suggestion of Gagged
animal was revolving. She lost the
power to idealize him in thought, to
believe him better than the reality
and from that time her progress
toward the divorce court was rapid.
Let the friendly veil remain then
to soften and conceal until, through
the complete elimination of rude
instincts, man shall stand with the
front of Jove."
By and by, when the semi-barbar-
ism OF the nineteenth century shall
be revealed by the historian and
the benefactors of the race shall fall
into proper line, We may confidently
expect this invocation: "God bless >
the man who first invented the !
mustache !'-N. 7. Mercury.