Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1899-12-28
MAN AND HIS BEARD.
SOME ANCIENT BELIEFS ABOUT HAIR
ON THE FACE.

Nigor of Mind and Body Was Sup
posed to Depend on the strength of
the Hirsutc Growtb--Aptiquity of
the Practice of Shaving.
Who first introduced among civilized
men the tonsure of the chin? The shavcn
polls and faces OF ecclesiastics date from
the time of Pope Anacletus, who intro.
duccd 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 it not a
little suggestive that women obey this
order of ST. Pauls with so much rcadi-
ness and yet invade the ministry OF the
church. from which they are explicitly
dcbarred 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 n REV"
But to proceed: st. Paul in the same
chapter asks the Corinthians, Doth not
nature itself teach you that if a man
have long hair it is a shame unto him?'
Pope Anacetus 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.
ccnt The Greeks taught shaving to the
Romans, and Plny records that the FIRST
Greek BARRIERS were taken from Sicily to
Rome by Publius Ticinus, in the four
hundred and fiftyfourth year of the
building of the city. The Greeks how
evcr-certainly it 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 nmovai 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
1t, slightly corrupted, mustache. In the
best days of Greece few but philosophers
wore unpruned boards.
A large flowing beard and largo flow
ing mantle were in those times as natu-
raj and essentially part of the business
of philosopher as striped pole is in
these days the sign of a barber. The
idea that there existed a connection be-
tween a mans vigor Of mind and body
and the vigor of growth in his beard was
confirmed 10y the fact that Socrates, the
wisest of the Greek philosophers, earned
pre-eminently the title of ''the Bearded"
Among races of men capable of grow
ing rich crops On the chin the beard has
always been regarded more or less as a
type of power. In the worlds history
the bearded races have at 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 characteris-
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 ripcns the
beard grows, and with it 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 it 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 a beard, or at
least of a good mystax. or mustache, had
come by the year 1913 to be regarded
so much as n mark of aristocracy that
after the revolution OF that year the Ger
mans took to the obliteration of the vain
mark of distinction by growing hair on
their chins and upper lips. Hairs have
thus been made significant in a 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 a
length of nearly half yard is not un-
common. Ssmondi speaks of a Vene-
tian magnate whose beard was so long
the wearer had to lift it up when he
walked to proven. tripping over it, The
hair Of mans head is generally fner
than that on the head of women, and if
left uncut would not grow nearly to the
same length. A woman's back hair is an
appurtenance entirely and naturally fem
mime Shaving compels the hair to grow
at an undue rate. In the course of q
year man shaves off about Gla inches OF
beard, so that a man of 50 would have
cut off in the course of his life a ~ foot
beard, 20 feet Elore perhaps than had he
left his beard alone.
Sir Charles Bell, In his essay on ex.
pIcSSlou, ODScINeS tHat no one WHO mas
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 flash and the nos
trils dilate over a 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 n pretty chin as makes
the charm that should belong TO women
only or to 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 il
will take but very little time to show
1t has various uses, physiological and
mechanical. To take a 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 OWL
way in the work that has been done by
the internal lungs. Their use in this
respect is pot lessened by shaving. On
the contrary. the elimination OF carbon
through the hairs of the face Is made tc
20 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 thp Droduction Of hoir on tho chi n