The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1890-05-04

The privileges of men are curtailed in
many ways, says Pick-Me-Up. but it Is
something that even if poverty has at
tackled mans extremities (Which. In his
essay on Men and Coats Thackerny says
it is accustomed to do first), he can wear
his beard, including his whiskers and mus
taches, as he chooses. There is no one to
control him, except, indeed, the little 10y
in the streets. Formerly man, to some
extent, carried his profession in his face.
If, forty years ago, for example. he wore
mustaches in England, he was roughly put
down as a cavalry officer, aforeigner-prob-
ably singer-or billiard sharper, term
which embraced pecuniary profigacy of all
kinds. Not, of course, that all men who
grew boards desired to be addressed as
captain by cunning crossing sweepers,
or wished it to be understood that they had
been where "noise of battle hurtled III the
air. 1t was naturally shock to society
when first the beard became general; and
students of Leechs pictures will remember
one representing the "Dismay Of British
Swell on seeing Postman with Mustaches."
The British swell tainted in the arms of a
friend who accompanied him, or who was
providentially passing. About this time,
1854 too, the London police ceased to
shave, and another picture shows the panic
among the street boys at seeing the constab-
ulary with boards and mustaches. Nova
days any great eccentricity in the style of
wearing beard is uncommon. Sometimes
stupid vanity, or I; disregard for cleanliness,
induces man to tend and dress his beard
till it comes to an unwholesome growth; but
when men had less to occupy and amuse
than they have in these times of telegraphy
and cheap literature, some were, to say the
least of it, fanciful in the culture of their
boards. There is. for instance, an effigy of
Sir G. Hart 1587) in Livingstone church,
Kent, which shows that this foppish knight
carefully curled his mustaches into three or
four little locks each side of lis nose, the
locks being all brushed upward with great
care. Taylor. the water poet" wrote in his
"Superbie Flagellum'' a long satire of men 8
strange boards, and is SO severe on the SUBJ
ject that one wonders how he wore his own
hair. As matter of fact he had what is
now called an imperial, twisted into three
have never been much quainter than in the
sixteenth century. One finds in Lyly's
midas, (1591) one Motto, barber, who
speaks of his eloquent occupation and
asks his customer whether he would have
''your beard like spade or bodkin?
your chin? A low curl on your head, like a
bull, or a dangling lock, like Spaniard!
Your mustachios sharp at the ends, like
shoemakers' avis, or hanging down to your
mouth, like goats flakes?" About this
time also we find mention of the spade
beard, the stiletto beard, the sugar-loa1
beard, the swallow-tail cut, the tile beard
etc, and contemporary writer-Stubbs-
in his Anatomy of Abuses" declares that
for some men "it is world to consider how
their mustachios must be preserved or laid
out from one cheek to the other, and
turned up like two horns toward the fore.
head" This is the beard in peace. The
beard in war was not without
it's disadvantages, It looked military
To brighten foe by. a. fierce
of him. and it is astonishing how much
with hair about, the manliness of the
features is enhanced if at some sacrifice
perhaps, of keenness and intellectually
Alexander, however. abolished boards in the
Macedonian army, because they served as
convenient handles for the foe. There was
time when boards were taxed in England.
A mans income is hard to ascertain. but a
man either had or had not beard, and il
he had, he must show his license. Peter
the Great took the hint. and either taxed or
shaved his subjects. Philip the Fifth of
Spain could not grow beard, and it was
discovered, about the time that this became
manifest, that boards were ludicrous dis
guises, fatal to good looks. Francis the
First of France had an ugly scar on his
throat, and grew beard to hide it, where
upon it was the general opinion that, for
every good reason, a beard was indispensa-
BILE. In its time fanatacism has, 80 to
speak, taken hold of the beard. A PAM
phlet was published 186O) under the title
of Shaving: Breach of the Sabbath, and
a Hindrance to the Spread of the Gospel