The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1893-05-05
WHISPERS IN THE ARMY.
Changss-in Style That Followed the
Caprics Of = French
Monarch.
Under Louis the Grand the Light
Mustaohe Was In High
Favor.
But the French Soldiers At were
Innscsnt Of Beard-Whiskers on
the Stage.

During twenty years OF the reign of Louis
XIV. the grand monarque wore a light mus
tnohe which was known as a "royale,' nor
did his majesty forbid his civilian heges to
adopt this graceful ornament. since the
mustaehe was worn not only by the king's
valet de chamfre, the illustrious dramasist
Molliere. who was undenlably OF
.bourceois'' extraction, but also by
many Of the greatest divines who
preached in the chapel royal
at Versailles. In 1850, however. it pleased
the king to appear clean-shaven; and his
subjects, gentle and simple, at once duti-
fully renowned their mustsches. The gal
liant French troors who conf, onted our own
brave soldiers at Blenheim and MalplaQuet
had not a particle Of hair on their faces;
and Marlborough was as destitute OF beard
and mussaches as his adversary boui-
fers; although in all likelihood
John Churchill, serving as a volunteer
under Turrenne. and known among
the French soldiery as 1.-THE handsome
Englishman." wore. as his heroic COM
mander did, a slight mustache. says the
London Telegraph. This ornament ap-
pears 10 have been entirely abandoned dur
ing the last half of the reign of Louis Nv;
but, when a considerable number OF 1or-
eien regiments were admitted INTO the
French service. the dragons and hussafs
were permitted to grow mustaches IN oroer
that they might assume an exceptionally
bellicose and ferocious aspect. The hrst
military <sulation in France relative to
nustaches was issued in 1779, and in this
cayalry soldie.s we're distinctly forbidden
sither to stiffen their mustaches with bees
wax or to twist them into points like those
of a dagger. Even in the first year OF Lib
erty. Equality and fraternity. 1892. the
French minister of war dsoreed that only
the orenndier corps should be suffered to
wear the mustaohe. Napoleon prohibited
its use to all the infantry in his armies
the Old Guard. The cavalry. nevertheless,
obtained the much coveted privilege OF
mustache wearing. excepting only the
Dragons, whose facial hairiness was linn.
tied to mutton-chop whiskers. In 1872 the
government of the restoration extended the
right Of appearing in m1stsohes 10 tne
prenadiers, the carbiniers and the voltigeurs.
and to commissioned officers Of eyery rank
of the service. In 1882 the monarch of July
not only allowed ustaohes to be worn by
all soldiers, privates as we'll as officers, but
made the assumption of them obligatory.
taken place in the facial appearance 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 Noun
seer in figure and mein equally resembling
Johnny Crapaud was altogether clean
shaven, and his diet in the popular belief
was usually composed Of "soupe mnlgte"
and fricasseed frogs. Az . matter of
fact the French emigrants who had been
domiciled in our midst from 1890 to 1914
frequently evon INDUCED in the luxury OF
whiskers; and If any mustached French
man were to be found in England of the
period 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 Glasses
in France had abstained from decorating
their countenances with mustaches, not
through any positive prohibition on the part
of the state, but because thev had to submit to
incessant moral coercion at the hands OF
the military caste, who for nearly two de-
cades staggered over and bullied the pa
ciho population. The swashbuckliEg SOL
diers of the Napoleonic wars, trailing their
sabres and clanking their SPURS OF the
pavement. twisting their long mustaches
and brushing up their bushy whiskers.
snfered and rallied at the unhappy "psk-
ins;' took the wall of them or thrust them
into the kennel when they met them in the
street; and. if they demonstrated threat
ened to cut off the ears of the bourgeois"
whom they reviled anu derided as epic
ters' or "garcons churcutlers."
This system of staggering and bullying
continued in a modified form throughout
the reBtorntion, especially in Paris, the
garrison of which WIS largely composed
of the aristocrntic cardes do corps. tbs
Mousquetaires and Swiss guards. After
the revolution of 1880. however. came u re-
markable reaction. Tho ~artistic. the in
tellectual and the working classes almost
unanimously ceased to shave, although
for a considerable period the full
beard was left to the artisan.
the artists, poets, novelists and jour
nnlists contenting themselves with the mus
tache. For this there was q particular Isa-
son. Romanticism both in literature and
art favored the mustache worn alone, and
not in conjunction with the beard. The
gallant soldiers and courtiels who Paul De-
laroche and Eugene Delacrolx loved to
paint, and painted go splendldiy. belonged
to the epochs of Hen:i Quatre and Louis
XIII. in France, and to those of Elizabeth
and the early Stuarts in England: md these
gallants, although they revelled in Rilky
nustaches. scarcely ever donned n full
beard. Thus from 1880 to the present
time civilian France has to a large extern
been u unattached nation. The exceptions
however. to the rule are somewhat numer
Gus. The French bench and the French
bar have generally abstslned from joinin!
the anti-shaving movement, and il a younl
advocate has the temeritY to claim tbs en-
joyment of bis rights as a free citizen, an
with a beard or mustache TO plead befor
one of the tribunals. lie will probably b
gravely adnonished by the president t
appear on the next occasion of his address
French hierarchy, again. have Sc
their faces dead against bot
boards and mustaches; the onl
exceptions that arc allowed being in tn
cases of the Capuchins, ths Lazarists, tn
missionary priests and the almoners q
cLap.a!ns Of the navy. One class, however
i'll eve = tivillzsd country has in the gree
mr. ior ty Of instances, and throughout ii
history abiured both boards and nut
tncles. lie actor has usually been u pei
fect!, tlean-shugen geutlcman: and if "
take the long roll of famous English his
trlons, from Betterton to Gnrrick, frol
Mackll to kemElc, from Kcan
Macren't md from Phelps to HenI
Irving, ! vii be found that not oil
of these distinguished p ofessors
tho dramatic art has worn the slighteJ
vestige of Il board or mustache. Mode1
comedians of the newest school, especial
those who enact the part of walking 90:
tlemen, not infrequently p%atroniae a mui
tache, which. when they appear behind u
footllghte, can be etfectuaily concealed |
judicious application of wig paste to ii
iace; but no actor who really respected ii
requirements of his Rrt would wear
huGhy hand apa n loar