The Russellville Democrat., 1893-06-15
MORAL EEEEcT or WHISPERS


A Mans Character / fiaenrsd b tho style
OF Bis n ard
Among the men meet at inter
walls on the road is very intelligent
fellow from Boston,, said. a festive
drummer in relating his experience
with whiskers. He is about thirty
FIVE and with a capacity for raising
hair on his face beyond that Of any
person that | ever met. He has fun
with it, too, and he has his whiskers
in different shape every time | meet
him, but he always comes up smil
ing, and | catch on to the new man
without much difficulty.
/" It's queer about whiskers, said
he the last time | saw him. Don't
you know they change the character
Of the manf'
II didn't know it and said So
j" They do, however, be con
tinued, whether you know it CT not.
Now, I've been hairy for over
twenty years nearly, and in that
time | have been all sorts of men.
For instance, when | wear large,
flowing side whisAers with a mus
tache / grow gradually as they do,
ard become quite dignifed and self
important. | can't help it, don't
you know. It's whiskers oblige, as
we say in French, and when | catch
a look at myself in a glass as | walk
along unconsciously swell out and
strut. I'm bound to do it to match
those whiskers. Then when | cut
off the mustache and run the side
whiskers alone | never see that
mouth aud chin back there but that
it makes me feel pious and | begin
t. assume the demeanor of minis
ter of the gospel. Can't help it,
either, to save my life. Some times
| go smooth faced, and my charac-
ter oscillates between priest and
doctor, according to the one of the
crowd Pm in. l even get boyish
sometimes and frisky when | see
my smooth, round face.
" Once, for the fun OF it, | cut
my mustache la prize-fghter, short
and stubby, and, do you know, be-
fore week | was veritable tough,
with my hat cooked over my eye
and my general manner provoking
slugging match at every turn. |
was anxious for fight all the time,
| and only saved myself by shaving
| When | wear full, neatly trimmed
beard feel exactly like banker
or a successful professional man,
and my manners after little while,
fall into that rut. | look it, they
tell me, and ! can't help but be it.
If wear mustache alone, long
and silky. / feel like gay Lothario
and want to smile at and ogle
women | see. | want to be one of
the boys, too, and whoop it up along
the line. When | add an imperial
to the mustache | throw
my shoulders back, brace my
muscles and assume military air.
In one or two of my towns | am
known as colonel, for | have always
worn my imperial while there. If |
run my beard down to point in the
French style | feel quite diplomatic,
and can be as slick as the politest of
them. | feel my shoulders shrug
on the slightest provocation, and to
all intents and purposes | am for
eigner. If part my whiskers in
the middle and brush them out to
either side | am German nobleman
or British landowner, according to
my surroundings. 1t gives me
hale and hearty, middle-aged feeling
that shows at once in my manner.
If the whiskers are let grow very
long | feel like pairiarchal farmer,
and become quite elderly and in
nocent in my department. And so
it goes through all the phases.
81 fancy that the style of a
mans whiskers is in consonance
with the mans character, anc, that
as man is so will his whiskers be.
In my case / have reversed the oper-
alton, but feel as | grow older and
become more settled that / shall
adopt one style of whiskers and keep
to that. Even now | am getting
around to it, and have been wearing
this close cut full beard for almost
six months, and don't feel like
changing it. Detroit Free Press.