The San Francisco call., 1896-12-25
THE BEARD IN HISTORY.
Pogonotomy, or the Gentle Art OF Self
Shaving.

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Shaving.
The practice of pogonotomy, the bar
bers say, is every year becoming more and
more widespread. Pogonotomy is what
the Greeks used to cali the gentle art OF
self-shaving. Some people shave them
selves because they wish to save time,
others to save money. But the fashion OF
going smooth-shaven is steadily increas-
ing, and it is quite probable that within
another FIVE years boards and mustaches
will be still less in vogue than they are to-
day.
The decadence of the beard among civil.
ized races and the reason for its disappear
ancs are interesting things to trace. Long
ago luxuriant beard was thought to be-
token a high degree of holiness or wisdom.
Even now the believers of the Koran
reverence the beard, and swear by that OF
their prophet. But it would seem that in
this very idolatry of the beard lay the
cause of it's downfall, for the possessor Of
q handsome beard was prone to vanity
and was likely to spend so much time in
decorating it that he ran the risk of neg
lecting more important matters. So the
church and state, then closely joined, de-
clared against it. The French swells OF
less than 200 years ago used to crimp their
boards, twine them with threads of gold
and hang them with pearls. Philip OF
Valois, who was one of the leaders OF
fashion of his day, used to tie golden
acorns in his beard.
The result was that popes and monarchs
began to issue bulls and edicts again st
hirsute appendages, someti mes with tenn
porary effect, and sometimes with none
at all. Pope Leo TX and Gregory VII
mathematical the beard, and this means
that they cursed it root and branch, for q
papal anathema in those days was some
thing sweeping and terrible.
In the army the first reason for abolish
ing the beard was that of cleanliness. Up
to the time of Alexander the Great the
Greeks were a bearded people, but that
ruler made every one of his Grecian SOL
diers shave. The Romans, too, made
shaving obligatory in the army, and there
were few boards or none among the civil
ians.
The beard was then considered to be the
characteristic feature of the barbarian.
The first Roman whom history records as
having shaved every day was Scipio, the
conqueror of Africa. In later times Peter
the Great of Russia made an attempt to
Danish the beard from his half-civilized
dominions, but achieved only an incom-
plete victory, and at one time even endan-
his decree. William the Conqueror was
another great commander who would
have no boards about his court or among
his soldiers. In France in 1853 all the
lawyers were forced to go clean-shayen.
and e light years later the clerks lost their
boards by law.
And so the barber's trade has grown,
but now they themselves acknowledge
that their ranks are swelling faster than
those of their customers. In times of
financial prosperity the BARRIERS pockets
bulge with coin, but when business is de-
pressed, they say, their customers by the
score shave themselves.
No one would think of making the mod
ern barber hero of romance, ike the
BARRIERS who fit through the pages of the
"Arab bian Nights or "Gil Bias" 1t
would be hard to fancy that the ancestor
of the man who shaves you to-day and
tries to force on strangers all sorts OF
tonics for the hair and other costly and
impossible things was perhaps he who in
spired the shears that subdued Samson
New York Sun