The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1893-01-06
HISTORY OF SHAVING
ONCE UPON A TIME ALL MEN
EVERYWHERE WORE Boards.
Alexander of Greece Is Said to Have
Been the First Barber-Beards Have
Been Common During the History of
Earliest Races-Some Remarks.

Been Common During the History of
Earliest Races-Some Remarks.
To THE EDIToR-Can you tell us when shaw
ing came into fashion, also something of the
history of boards? BROWN AND JONES.
This question is apropos. AT this
period, when the Nineteenth century is
coming to the end of the division, the
fire has been put out in the box and old
father time has reversed the wheels and
put on the brakes, it is particularly fit
ting that somebody, either Brown or
Jones or both, should arise and put this
question. 1t is a fin de steele question.
The first instance of shaving originated
from the necessities of war. In the late
autumn of the year 800 B. c., the Mace
domains got their crops in early, and
after the celebration of the harvest home
things got pretty uninteresting in Mace
donia. 1t was too cold to fish and too
warm to skate, and the prospect for the
Macedonian on pleasure bent when he
fired up the baseburner and reflected
that skates hadn't been invented yet was
not happy one.
Things continued to drag on until
Thanksgiving time, 800 B. c., when the
Macedonians got together, sailed down
on the Greeks and did them battle. The
Greeks got the worst of it, and for no
other reason than that they sported long,
flowing boards. The marauding Mace
domains grabbed these Grecian orna-
ments and yanked the poor Greek forty
ways for Sunday, leaving him a howl
ing mass Oh the ground. 1t was this
incident that probably gave rise to the
couplet:
When Greek meets Macedonian
Then comes the tug of beard.
An old veteran by the name of Alex
ander saw at once the weak point of the
Grecian forces and he called in a loud
voice, "Off with every beard! That
settled it. The next day committee
called on the army with a ripsaw and d
bucket of salve and amputated every
beard in sight. This is an account of the
first shave known to history. The rec
ord of the first barbering is a frontlet of
curls made for princess in the east
5000 years ago, now in the British mu-
scum Homer has the first reference ~
the razor in the Eighth century, B. G.
He says, with some feeling:
Death or life stands on a razor's edge.
After the rape of the boards of the
Grecian army shaving became popular
with some, but not until much later
day, and when Greece had started down
the toboggan slide of adversely, did it
become general In fact it is well
known fact among historians that the
fashion of smooth faces among the men
has marked the eifeminacy, weakness
and final downfall of all nations. The
Romans were always partial to boards
until the Roman empire became too big
for its clothes and acquired swagger,
when Hadrian set the example of a
smooth chin in 101 A. d. and gave the
Roman BARRIERS boom. The first men.
ton of BARRIERS is by Pliny. Somewhere
along about 296 B. G. Scipio Africanus
took iaunt to Sicily and there saw
some BARRIERS. They pleased him, and
he brought 200 back to Rome and had
his beard taken off.
Scipio was, good deal of Ward Nc
Allister III mis- day, and the Roman
swells rapidly followed suit. After that
it got to be common sight in Rome for
row Of men to sit until IL o'clock Sat
urday night and listen for ''Nextp But
this was only among the Four Hundred
The bone and sinew of the Roman re.
public swore by their boards. AL
through the orient short hair and beard
less chins have always meant a condi.
ton of mourning and servitude. A long
beard was priceless, and the Moham
medans still swear by their Boards The
prophet Ezekiel, as early as 565 B. c..
was directed to take BARRIERS razor
upon his head and upon his beard il
sign of the ruin to come upon Israel
The men were set free, but were
ashamed to go to David with any Of
their beard gone. He found them, how
ever, and sent them on vacation to Lei
their boards grow out. An old Greek
known among his friends as Zoilius
who lived in 800 B. c., and was dropped
off a precipice for criticising Homer
had very long beard, and SO solicitous
was he that long hair on his head might
detract from the strength of the beari
that he kept his NOODLE clean .shaven
After Thomas More had taken leave O.
his daughter at the foot of the scaffold
in 1886, his chief anxiety was that tn,
headsman might injure his beard
The finest beard on record belonged tt
Gillaume the priest, bishop of Clermont
who founded the college for Jesuits a
Paris late in the Eighteenth century
This beard was long, wavy and soft a
silk. But his beard was his downfall
His brother bishops became jealous O
it, and decided that it must come off
This was decreed at a secret council
and the next morning when the prizes
entered the chapel three men met hin
with soap, hot water, a razor and shear
and laid hold of him. He broke away
skedaddled and took refuge in castle
where he died of vexation.
The only exceptions where beard
have not been considered as advanta
geous appurtenances were among tn
Germans, the Egyptians and in the earl,
colonial days among the Puritans. TIL
ancient German youth was not allowed
to shave until he had slain an enemy il
battle, and among the New England
Puritans long boards were sometime
fercibly reaped, because the idea pre-
vailed that Y1.ida lurlxad bobipd a vonar