The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1893-07-28
WALTERS AND WHISPERS
They Have Been Separated Since
the Days of Solomon.
The Custom of shaving Among Servants
Made Compulsory in England
Wealthy Americans Follow
the European Style.

The row which the walters and hack
| drivers kicked up the other day When
/ it was proposed to rob them of their
! boards and mustaches is new evidence
/ of humanity progress toward equality.
! Their success knocked down another
old idol, for a smooth face has been
used as badge of servitude since the
time King Solomon contracted the
habits of marrying three times day
and making proniseuous proverbs.
Kings from solomon and David down
through ancient and medieval and
modern history always required their
| servants to take the first drink from
every bottle of wine, as precaution
against poison. The personal servant
OF the king in early history always had
to have a clean-shaven face, says the
New York Press.
The servants. and especially the per-
sonal servants of all monarehs and
high dignitaries, have always worn
beardless faces, while their masters in
ancient days always wore boards
The medieval ages were we'll under
way before any man of high position
wen: without whiskers.
In the latter part of the last century
and the early part of this the distinc-
! ton in dress between the master and
the servant in England was actually
less conspicuous than it has been for
the last fifty years. When men com
menced to adopt the long, full-legged
trousers, to abandon the wig and to
wear full boards, they made their per-
sonal men servants continue TO observe
the old styles. Their coachmen must
wear horse-hair wigs, smooth face and
knee breecAes-the horse-hair wig
making the head look full behind, the
clean-shaven face giving the appear
ance of youth and the fat calves an
aspect of prosperity.
While some of the features of this
gaudy, picturesque livery have been
abandoned in all the best English
houses, the clean-shaven face is to-day
steadily required, not only of the
coachman and butler but of all house
hold servants. with the possible excep-
tion of the gardener. 1t was not until
about twenty-seven years ago, how
ever, that the custom of requiring
Gverymen TO wear clean-Shaven faces
was observed at all in New York
About that time August Belmont, Ed
ward Mathews and j. q. Bennett put
their stables and coaches in charge of
EnglishInen and Scotchmen. These
imported servants put the custom in
vogue in this city. Up to that time the
coachman of even the wealthiest fami-
lies III the city sat in their boxes with
out uniform or livery and wore his
beard or didn't, ,as he pleased. In very
few years thereafter there was not
wealthy family in town whose coach
man did not have 20 observe the GUS
tom.
The idea of srnooth-faced walters
came here with the Europeanizing of
American hotels. Ten years ago
there was no such iron-clad rule in any
of the New York hotels and restau-
rants. Then all the walters at Delmon-
ico's were required to shave off their
boards and clean-shaving became the
rule in nearly all the leading houses in
town.
1t is interesting to know that, while
tIIS tuSlOlI cdi1lt IIO1 IlilE tditr
growing out of the smooth-faced Eng
lish house servants, the hotel walters
in Europe have not complied with il
with much patience. In fact in some
of the best hotels in London and on
the continent the walters have forced
their employers to allow them
to wear their boards. Thus IL is seen
that American hotel-keepers tried to
copy their English models.
At a banquet in Vienna one Aus
trian nobleman bet another thou
sand marks that he could have the
proprietor make the walters shave
their boards. The proprietor refused,
and told the gentleman he must go
elsewhere if he could not stand the
mustachios of the walters. This was
regarded as a great victory for the
walters in the Vienna hotel.