Idaho semi-weekly world. [volume] (Idaho City, Idaho Territory) 1875-1908, 1893-01-10
HISTORY OF SHAVING
ONCE UPON A TIME ALL MEN
EVERYWHERE WORE Boards.

Alexander of Greece Il Said TO Hav'
Beep the First Barber-Beards Hav'
Been Common During the History o
rariiest Races-Some Remarks.
To THE EpIToR-Can you tell US when shaw
ing came into fashion, also something oil Int
history Of boards? BROWN AND JONES.
This question is apropos. AT TIM
period. when the Nineteenth century II
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
mt on the brakes, it is particularly mt
ting that somebody, either Brown OF
Jones or both, should arise and put this
question. 1t is q fin de steele question.
The first instance of shaving originated
from the necessities Of war. In the late
autumn Of the year 800 B. G., the Mace.
domains got their crops in early, and
after the celebration Of the harvest home
things got pretty uninteresting in Mace
donna. It was too cold to fish and too
warm to skate, and the prospect for the
Macedonian on pleasure bent when ne
fred M 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. e., 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 howl
ing mass on 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 loud
voice, "Off with every beardv That
settled it. The next day committee
called on the army with ripsaw and a
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 frontlet OF
curls made for princess in the east
5000 years ago, now in the British mu-
scum. Homer has the first reference tc
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 il
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 10l A. D. and gave the
Roman BARRIERS boom. The first men
ton of BARRIERS is by Pliny. Somewhere
along about 296 b. G. Scipio Africans
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 a Ward Nc
Allister in his day, and the Roman
swells rapidly followed suit. After that
it got to be common sight in Rome for
a row of men to sit until IL o'clock Sat
urday night and listen for ''Nextr' But
this was only among the Four Hundred.
The bone and sinew of the Roman re-
public swore by their boards. All
through the orient short hair and beard
less chlns have always meant 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 5S5 B. G.,
was directed to take BARRIERS razor
upon his head and upon his beard in
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 let
their boards grow out. An old Greek,
known among his friends as Zoilius,
who lived in 800 B. c., and was dropped
on preclplce 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 beard
that he Kept his noidle clean shayen.
After Thomas More had taken leave of
his daughter at the foot of fine scaffo,d
in 1885, his chief anxietv uas IT, a.
headsman migbt ininrs h;' ts.s sa"' 'ne
Tho fnast -, in ~ u ms MS pearu'
,;1I no MS ~ oeaiu On record belonged to
",iiaune the priest, bishop of Clermont,