The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-04-22
SUSPICIOUS OF MUsTAcHEs.

A Time When Mississippi River Gam blers Had to Shave or Do No Busi- ness.
 Back in 1S50" remarked a New Or
 leans professional man, chatting about old times, ia mustache was regarded with great suspicion all through the
 Mississippi valley. It was supposed to
 be the mark of either a military swash-
 bucl1ler or a gambler, and gentleman
 particularly if he wanted to go into so-
 ciety, shaved smooth Boards were
 looked upon as an unclean foreign of-
 fectation, and Irecall curious incident
 based in that prejudice.
 "A charming young English gentle
 man who was near relative of a dis
 tingNished man of science, was visiting
 at a river town noted for it's aristocrat
 ic and punctilious society. He was a
 fine specimen of physical manhood, and
 followed a fashion which had just ob-
 tained foothold in London he wore a
 heavy blonde n1ustache and set of
 lYxur!ant, curly whiskers-much after the style of our old friend Taffy in
 'Trilby.' Nowadays he would be en- vied the possession of such a superb or nament, but the good ladies of the town were greatly perplexed, and after much consultation they finally decided that they could not countenance such d bar barous custom and would have to de- cline to receive him unless he shaved. The young Englishman decided that he had to decide between whiskers and os- tracism, and being plucky chap, he packed his trunk and went back to London on the next boat,
 "To revert to the mysterious connec- tion between gamblers land mustaches, a matched upper lip eventually became such a well-recognized badge of the trade, that card sharps who wanted to avoid suspicion were forced to shave clean. One noted professional, who worked the big boats, looked great deal like sanctmonious deacon when his nuseache was removed, and he used to make t point of dressing in long, tailed rusty black coat with a white cravat. Going up to Vicksburg one night, I was sitting in earshot when he attracted the attention of group of gay young gentlemen, playing poker in the main saloon. He was seated by himself reading a book, and was evil dently unknown to the party. I'll bet that old rascal plays poker on the sly said one of the crowd. Ask him to join us, said another as a joke, and the first speaker acted on the suggestion. The stranger was very reluctant at first but finally said he calculated he wasn't too old to learn,' and took hand. A cou- pie of hours later he got off at landing with every dollar in the crowd, re- casually that he would now give his mustache chance.
 "On another occasion I was going up to Louisville on some important busi- ness and had been warned especially to look out for gamblers We had the usual crowd of sharpers on board. but | hey were all shaved clean, and 1t ,hanced that among our passengers were lot of army men fresh from the | vest, where mustaches were counte- | lanced Consequently when we | cached the old Gait House at Louis- | lille and made some inquiries of friends, was chagrined to find that all | he people had been fraternizing with were gamblers and all those I had been and avoiding were gentle nen ''--New Orleans Times-Democrat