The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1899-12-19
NAN AND HIS BEARD,
some ANCIENT BELIEFS ABOUT HAIR
ON THE FACE.

We AN1ctSe vs. cMsvA~os
Who first introduced among civilized
men the tonsure of the chin? The shaver
polls and faces Of ecclesiastics date from
the time Of Pope Anacletus, who intro.
duced the custom upon the same literal
authority Of Scripture that still causes
women to wear bonnets In churches, that
they may not pray uncovered. Is 1t not
little suggestive that women obey this
order of St. Paul's with so much readi-
ness and yet invade the ministry Of the
church. from which they are explicitly
debarred by the sine qua non that such
an officer must be the husband Of one
wife, Until "the new woman has ac-
. complished this extraordinary feat It
seems very naughty Of her to be Rev"
But to proceed: BIT. Paul In the same
chapter asks tho Corinthians, Doth not
nature itself teach you that II man
have long hair 1t is a shame unto himr
Pope Anacletus proposed, therefore, to
remove all shame from churchmen by
ordering them to go shaven and shorn
altogether.
The shaving of the beard by laymen
was, however, a practice much more an
cient. The Greeks taught shaving to the
Romans, and Pliny records that the first
Greek BARRIERS were taken from Sicily to
Rome by Publius Ticinius, In the four
hundred and ffty-fourth year Of the
building of the city. The Greeks, how
ever-certainly 1t was SO with them In
the time Of Alexander-seem to have
been disposed to use their barber more
for pruning and trimming than for the
complete removal of the beard and Of
that ornament upon the upper lip which
they called the mystax and which we
call. using the same name they gave to
It, slightly corrupted, mustache. In the
best days of Greece few but philosophers
wore unpruned boards.
A large flowing beard and large flow.
ing mantle were in those times as natu-
raj md essentially part Of the business
Of philosopher as striped pole Is In
these days the sign Of barber. The
idea that there existed connection be-
tween mans vigor of mind and body
and the vigor of growth in his beard was
confirmed by the fact that Socrates, the
wisest of the Greek philosophers, earned
emnently the title of ''the Bearded"
Among races Of men capable Of grow
always been regarded more or less as
type of power. In the worlds history
the bearded races have OF all times been
the most important factors, and there is
no part of the body which, as a whole,
they have shown more readiness to hon
or. In strict accord with that feeling the
strength Of Samson was made to rest
in his hair. The beard became naturally
honored, inasmuch as it Is characters
tic feature of man only In the best years
Of his life, when he is capable Of putting
forth his Independent energies. AS
years multiply and judgment ripens the
beard grows, and with 1t grows, or ought
to grow, every mans title to respect.
Gray boards became thus SO closely con-
nected with the idea of mature discretion
that they were taken often as Its sign Of
cause, and thus 1t was tabled of the wise
King Numa that he was gray haired even
in his youth.
To revert to the subject of shaving,
Tactitus says that in his time Germans
cut their boards. In our time, among
that people, the growth of beard, or ut
least of good mystax, or mustache, had
come by the year 184S to be regarded
so much as mark of aristocracy that
after the revolution of that year the Ger
mans took to the obiteration of the vain
mark of distinction by growing hair on
their chins and upper lips. Hairs have
thus been made significant in new way.
There Is scarcely an army in Europe
that Is not subject to some regulations
that affect the beard and mustache.
The honor of the mustache is cher
ished particularly in Hungary, and
length of nearly half yard is not I'M
common. Sismondi speaks Of a Vene-
tan magnate whose beard was so long
the wearer had to lift it up when he
walked to prevent tripping over 1t. The
hair of a mans head is generally finer
than that on the head Of women, and il
left uncut would not grow nearly to the
same length. A woman's back hair is an
appurtenance entirely and naturally fem
inine Shaving compels the hair to grow
at an undue rate. In the course of q
year a man shaves off about g., inches of
beard, so that man of so would have
cut off in the course of his life ~ foot
beard, 20 feet more perhaps than had he
left his beard alone.
Sir Charles Bell, in his essay on cx-
preston, observes that no one who has
been at an assembly of bearded men can
have failed to have remark the greater
variety and force Of the expression they
are able to convey. What can be more
portentous, for example, than to see the
brow cloud and the eye fash and the nos
trils dilate over beard curling visibly
with anger? How i'll does smooth chin
support at any time the character as
sumed by the remainder Of the face, ex-
cept it be character of sanctimonious
oiliness that does not belong honestly
to man or such pretty chin rs makes
the charm that should belong to women
only or to a child. Therefore It is per-
tinent to ask: Why do we shave our
boards? Why are we a bare chinned
people?
That the hair upon the face of man
was given to him for sufficient reason it
will take but very little time to show.
1t has various uses, physiological and
mechanical To take physiological use
first the fact may be pointed out that
the formation of hair is one method of
extruding carbon from the system and
that the external hairs aid in their own
way In the work that has been done by
the internal lungs. Their use in this
respect is not lessencd by shaving. On
the contrary, the elimination of carbon
through the hairs of the face Is made to
go on with unnatural activity because
the natural effort to cover the chin with
hair Is increased in the vain struggle to
remove the state of an artificial badness,
and the production of hair on the chin
is at least quadrupled by the use of the
razor. The natural balance is destroyed
in this way. We have all had too much
opportunity for noticing how, in people
whose lungs are constitutionally weak
as in people with consumptive tendencies,
the growth OF hair Is excessive, even 70
the eyelashes. A skin covered with
downy hair Is one of the marks of o
scrofulous child, and who has not been
saddened by the long eyelashes over the
lustrous eye of the consumptive grill
Philadelphia Record.