The Marietta journal. [volume] (Marietta, Ga.) 1866-1909, 1893-06-08
THE WHISPERS AND THE MAN.
How the Hair on His Face Dominates tn,


wears S4AsALeCAtHs
Among the men l meet at inter
walls on the road is very intelligent
fellow from Boston" said drum
mer. He is about 35, and with a
capacity for raising hair on his face
beyond that of any person l ever
met. He has fun with it, too, and he
has his whiskers in different shape
every time / meet him. Now and
then | don't know him, but he al
ways comes up smiling, and I catch
on to the new man without much
difficulty
It's queer about whiskers,' said
he the last time I saw him. Don't
you know they change the character
of the man?'
didn't know it and said so.
" They do, however, he continued,
whether you know it or not. Now,
have been hairy for 90 years nearly,
and in that time I have been all sorts
of men. For instance, when l wear
large, flowing side whiskers with a
mustache, l grow gradually as they
do, and become quite dignifed and
self important. l can't help it, you
know. It's "whiskers oblige," as we
say in French, and when | catch a
look at myself in glass as l walk
along unconsciously swell out and
strut. I'm bound to do it to match
those whiskers. Then, when l cut off
the mustache and run the side whis-
kers alone, l never see that mouth
and chin back there but it makes me
feel pious, and begin to assume the
demeanor of minister of the gospel
Can't help it, either, to save my life.
Sometimes l go smooth faced, and
my character oscillates between
priest and actor, according to the
one of the crowd I'm in I even get
boyish'sometimes and frisky when l
see my smooth, round face.
Once, for the fun of it, cut my
mustache a la prizefghter, short and
stubby and, do you know, before a
week was veritable tough, with
my hat cooked over my eye and my
general manner provoking a slug
glng match at every turn. l 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 sue
cessful professional man, and my
manners after little while fall into
that rut. I look it, they tell me, and
can't help but be it. If I wear a
mustache alone, long and silky,
feel like a gay Lothario, and want to
smile at and ogle every woman see,
want to be one of the boys, too,
and whoop it up all along the line.
When | add an imperial to the mus
tache, throw my shoulders back,
brace my muscles and assume mil
ltary air. In one or two of my towns
l am known as colonel, for I have
always worn my imperial while there.
If | run my beard down to a
point in the French style, I feel quite
diplomatic, and can be as slick as the
politest of them. I feel my Shout
ders shrug on the slightest provoca-
ton, and to all intents and purposes
am a foreigner If I part my
whiskers in the middle and brush
them out to either side, 1 am a Ger
man nobleman or a British land
owner, according to my surround
ings. 1t gives me a hale and hearty,
middle aged feeling that shows at
once in my manner If the whiskers
are let grow very long, I feel like a
patriarchal farmer and become quite
elderly and innocent in my deport-
ment. And so it. goes through all
the phases.
" I fancy that the style of a mans
whiskers is in consonance with the
mans character, and that as man is
so will his whiskers be. In my case
l have reversed the operation, but I
feel as l grow older and become more
settled that shall adopt one style of
whiskers and keep to that. Even
now l am getting around to it and
have been wearing this close cut full
beard for almost six months, and
I don't feel like changing it. DE
troit Free Press.