The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1895-03-10
ORIGIN OF SHAVING.
Keeping the Face smooth an Ancient
Sanitary PrecautIon


Keeping the Face smooth an Ancient
Sanitary Precaution.
Certain of our practices, though purgedl
OF cruelty, are no whit more sensible than
the standardization of savages. When
Nero, on assuming the toga virilis, shaved
| of his young beard, put on n gold Golfer
set with pearls. and offered il TO Jupiter
Capitolinus, he was performing an act
which was only moro credItable to his in :
| telligence than chopping off a finger be-
cause it was mutilation without naming.
but II was mutilation all the same, and
the mutilation repeated every morning by
more than half of our adult male popula-
| ton is only less ridiculous than Nero's be-
| cause we no longer believe that thereby
we please a superior being. But besides
the ceremonial or prop tiatory origin,
shaving, as practised by Asiatic and
European nations, may be traced to
secondary source. In the Aryan race il
is closely connected with the mutilation
OF prisoners taken in war, SO as to lead to
Identification If they attempted escape.
Previous to the Christian era, says Good
Words, shaving was certainly practiced.
but invariably it was done as a sanitary
precaution-as when Joseph, on being
summoned from prison to interpret
Pharaoh's dream, "shaved himself and
changed his raiment" Genesis xii :l4-or
as a symbolical act of publication, or as a
token of humiliation. But Christianity
brought with it, among other improve
ments, an aversion to shedding human
blood without at least a plausible excuse.
Slavery continued an integral part of the
social system; and so long as there we're
slaves there would be attempts to escape.
and means must be had to insure their
recognition. Sitting noses and boring
ears went out of vogue, and the milder
mutilation of shaving was found to
answer the purpose. 1t became the recog-
nlzed badge of servitude. So il has come
to pass that we no longer even brand our
convicts, but are satisfied with cropping
their heads and shaving their faces. SO
Strange as 1t may seem, and little as
servants in livery may relish the connec-
ton, the rule that obliges footmen and
grooms to shave, is n survival of the an
Gent custom of mutilating slaves. But
they may soothe their wounded self re-
spect by the reflection in every European
hrmy, servants of the monarch, must con-
form to strict regulations in the matter of
shaving, the only bearded men in British
battalions being, for some occult reason.
the pioneers.
But who shall explain the mysterious
edcts which regulate the ebb and flow of |
hair over the British warriors vissare? |
Our gallant infantry in the Peninsula and |
Waterloo campaigns fought with lips and |
chin completely bare. Plutarch saws that |
Alexander the Great first abolished boards
in the Macedonian army because they got
pulled in battle; but since the invention
of artillery warfare has been getting less
and less like football under Rugby rules.
William Nv. allowed his foot soldiers n
tidy little tuft under each ear. The in
fantry we landed in the Crimea were
privileged to train their whs<ers as loC,
as line drawn between the lobe of the
ear and the corner of the mouth. A moro |
forid style was sanctioned in the cavalry.
he only EnGllshmen who at that time
'ported the mustachc,
When peace was declared mustaches
we're decreed essential in all the branches
# the service, but it was not until after
he next war that the sacred frontier be-
ween ear and mouth was relaxed. Resl-
nents returning from the Indian mutiuv
found that the authorities had |
ravely pronounced that all hair might he
rown on the face, save a space measured ,
y the breath of four fingers on the chin. ]
his was high water mark, if endured for ,
years. Then came the doom for whis- !
ers, and now nothing may be grown on ,
he face of soldiers of all ranks, pioneers !
ways accepted, but the mustache alone.
II course, fashionable young men, the
ulk of whom, by chivalrous tradition. con-
'rm TO the military type, have had to
lapt themselves to these changes though
new school, tho amateur dramatic. may ,
> recognized by shaving everything.
iccadilly weepers, the glory of Leech's !
'ung men, and the Newgate frill. are as
out of favor as the homely
luton chop pattern. IL is terrible to
ink what calamities might overtake our
ms If any future edict should direct the
'.dier TO leave his countenance as the
reator designed it. Nevertheless il is
surlng to reflect that Britannia still
lies the wave. although sailors of the
yal navy who, until few years ago
ere made to shave above the lips and
lin, are now at liberty to grow as much
they please. without loss either in APP
'arance or efiicisn