The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-10-14
A MISTAKE OF THACKERAY.
Made Whiskers of Heroes Too Luxu-
RANT, Says Prof. ChumIey.
From the New York Sun.

From the New York Sun.
Pittsburg-Prof Arthur Chumley, now
scientist, formerly barber, has just re-
turned from England, where he satisfied
his curiosity regarding a literary matter
that had long puzzled him. He came to
America when a little boy, and learned the
BARRIERS trade. Like John A. Brashear.
who was formerly carpenter and is now
an astronomer and expert maker OF astro-
nomical instruments, he was ambitious.
HIS shop lay in a district filed with Italian
and Slavonic immigrants, who, on their
arrival, brought their own and their emil
dren's heads TO Barber Chumiey Tor IN
spection and correction. Chumey cast
about for drugs suited to cure the i'll that
afflicted their scalps, and was iherepy ieo
TO the study of chemistry, and insect NE.
The wonderful construction of halr ceiis
and an accidentally overheard menuon OF
the phrase capillary attraction" induced
him to devote some of his spare time 10
acquiring a knowledge of physics. ne
| search for cure for badness carried him
on 10 the study of the human scalp the
construction of the head and then that Oh
| the body so that he became an anatomhI
| He learned all about zoology in seeking
! a connection between mango on animals
| and human badness. In short When
| Chumley's grandfather in England died
| and left him some money he abandoned
the BARRIERS trade, learned a few more
sciences and decided to perfect hlmse1 IN
literature 1t is in consequence OF ms
study of the literature Of fiction mat ne
was able TO make the observations toId De
| low in his own words:
"A few years ago I read in a London
periodical" said the professofI an essay
on the gastronomic phases of the works
Of the novelists, showing how Scott and
Dickens and Thackeray and other authors
described the meals in which the Sharac-
| tiers they describe frequently participate,
Reading this, wondered why no one had
ever taken up peculiarly of ThackeraV $.
! Now. Thackeray is my favorite novelA &C:
| Yet until my last visit to England ha
always believed that in one respect this
author was frequently guilty Of exagsera-
ton. l refer to the precocious boards, II
1 may use the word of his heroes. If you
! will recollect the whiskers of Arthur ZEN
dennis cost him much lime and expense
when he was only sixteen. Philip Firmin
spent money on his whiskers when he was
| but eighteen, and Give NeWcome was
| proud of his hrsuite APPENDICES at an age
when the average American boy looks
yainIy In his mirror for a sign of hairy
growth on his face.
81 will admit that in this country one
may come across occasional youths, whose
! facial capillature is the envy of grown
men less abundantly endowed but in all
| cases these boys are dark haired. Now, in
all my twenty years experience as bar
Der never saw whiskers, or the sign Of
whiskers on light-haired boys 16 years Old.
As regards red-haired men it has been my
experience that their whiskers are rather
slow in coming. Yet if you read Thack-
cray attentlvely you will observe that the
Whiskers with which he endows his heroes
| while they are yet children are invariably
red or reddish 1t seems to me that our
author is deserving of severe animadver-
sion for his want of the knowledge of the
nature Of The beard And not only his
heroes are abnormally gifted with hir-
| suiteness; countless boys, particularly
lordlings. strut in their teens through MS
pages. with whiskers dripping macassar
| o..