Evening journal., 1893-02-25
THE WEARING OF Boards.
How the BIustache Has Been Treated In
Tranee by soldiers and Civilians.

How the sIustache Has Been Treated In
France by Soldiers and Civilians.
The first military regulation in France
relative TO mustaches was issued in lT79, and
IN this cavalry soldiers were distinctly for
bidden either to stiien their mustaches
with beeswaX or to twist them into points
ike those of a dagger. Even in the first
year Of liberty equality and fraternity
l7g2-the French minister of war decreed
that only the grenadier corps should be
suffered TO wear the mustache. Napoleon
prohibited its use to all the infantry in his
armies. with the exception of the grena-
diers of the old Guard The cavalry never
theless obtained the much coveted privi.
legs OF mustache wearing, excepting only
the Dragons whose facial hairiness was
limited to mutton chop whiskers. In 1892
the government of the restoration extended
the right of appearing in mustaches to the
greuadiers, the carbiniers and the volti
geurs and 90 commissioned officers OF every
rank OF the service In 1892 the monarch OF
July not only allowed mustaches TO be
worn by all soldiers. privates as well as OIL.
GERS, but made the assumption Of them ob.
lgatory Meanwhile a very curious revo-
luton had taken place in the facial appear.
ance of civilian Frenchmen.
The popular British conception of the
lively Gaul until the year 1880 was that OF
a parchment visaged, wrinkled, pig tailed,
powdered "mounseer," in figure and mien
equally resembling a baboon and dancing
master johnny Crapaud was altogether
clean shaven, and his diet, in the popular
belief. was usually composed of "soupe
maigre" and fricasseed frogs. As a matter
Of fact, the French emigrants, who had been
4 n. 4 M. FlHfa
very rarely wore mustaches and not very
frequently even INDUCED in the luxury OF
whiskers, and if any mustached Frenchmen
were to he found in the England of the pc
riod it would probably have been in the
hulks at Portsmouth or at Dartmoor among
the French prisoners of war.
During all these years, moreover, the
civilian classes in France had abstained
from decorating their countenances with
mustaches not through any positive pro.
hibition on the part Of the state but be-
cause they had to submit to incessant moral
coercion at the hands of the military caste,
who for nearly two decades staggered over
and bullied the pacific population. The
swashbuckling soldiers of the Napoleonic
wars, trailing their sabers and clanking
their spurs on the pavement, twisting their
long mustaches and brushing up their
bushy whiskers, sneered and rallied at the
unhappy "pekins," took the wall of them
or thrust them into the kennel when they
met them in the street, and if they remon.
strated threatened to cut off the ears of the
bourgeois" whom they reviled and de
rided as "epiciers" or "garcons charcu-
| tiers
This system Of staggering and bullying
continued in a modified form throughout
the restoration, especially in Paris, the
garrison of which was largely composed OF
the aristocratic Gardes du Corps, the Nous
| quetaires and Swiss guards. After the
revolution of 1880, however, came remark
able reaction. The artistic, the intellectual
and the working classes almost unanimous
ly ceased to shave, although for consider
able period the full beard was left to tn,
artisans, the artists, poets, novelists anc
| journalists contenting themselves with the
mustache. For this there was particulai
reason. Romanticism both in literatur
and art favored the mustache worn alOn
and not in conjunction with the beard
The gallant soldiers and courtiers whom
Paul Delaroche and Eugene Delacroix love-
to paint, and painted so splendidly, be
longed to the epochs of Henri Quatre AM
Louis XIII in France, and to those of Eliza
beth and the carly Stuarts in England. An,
these gallants, although they reveled il
silky mustaches. scarcely ever donned
full beard. Thus from 1880 TO the presen
time civilian France has to large exten
been mustached nation. The exceptions
however, to the rule are somewhat numei
GUS. The French bench and the Frenc
bar have generally abstained from joinin
the antishaving movement, and if youn
advocate has the temerity to claim the oI
ioyment Of his rights as free citizen, an
with a beard or mustache TO plead befor
one of the tribunals, he will probably b
gravely admonished by the president 10 al
pear on the next occasion of his addressin
the court in more decorous trim. Tn
French hierarchy again have set their fac
dead against both boards and mustache.
the only exceptions that are allowed bein
in the cases Of the Capuchins, the Lazaristi
the missionary priests and the almoners c
chaplains OF the navy.-London Telegraph