The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-09-27
DAY OF SHAVEN FACE
GOV. DoCxERY SACRIFICES A
 LANDMARK TO CUSTOM.


 GOV. DoCxERY SACRIFICES 4 LANDMARK TO CUSTOM. Missouri statesman's Historic whis- ksrs Only One of Many Sets That Have Yielded to the Iusistent Rasor Youth, of 1908 Not Hair-Prom ,ter. New York Sun.
 The. dispatch from Missouri recording the fact that Governor Alexander Mon- roc Cookery has divested his countenancs of celebrated and almost immemorial set of wfislxers records another notable effect of a general tendency of the new century, namely the. tendency to clip, prune or discard the tendrils of the face, to shorten sail or run under bare polls. Unfortunately, the news from Missouri lacks detail. It does not state whether the Governor has parted with the entire crop or still retains fringe and memento upon his upper lip. The report does say that the reducing process was gradual beginning in the Summer. when the beard
 of thirty years growth. which spread l like napkin over the Gubernatorial shfrt-front, was curtailed and narrowed to a pointed covering for the chin. a mere ghost or skeleton of it's former self. In their most luxuriant state the Gov ernor's wind-compellers were of that va riety. not uncommon in the paper collar period of the last generation, which en- | abled their fortunate possessors to dis pense altogether with neckties and dis- regard to a considerable extent the con- dition of their linen. Indeed. it was a secret. known only to the bearded ones
 themselves and to a few discreet washer women. whether such persons wore white linen upon their manly fronts or not. If they did, 1t was mere concession to cus- tom, the qualification of an aesthetic
 sense which found no visible expression. Governor Dockery's determination to
 reef his whisker spread was due in the beginning to perception that it belonged. | like horse-hair furniture and Sunday | broadcloth, to a bygone period. When the pruning had been accomplished and the Governors friends detected in him a resemblance to Bill Phelps. the lobbyist, l there was still a choice open-1he might
 have permitted a second growth, as So
 many other timber-raisers have done in the lumber, country. but instead of that he cleared the field and exposed 1t after long concealment to the direct action of the elements. In adopting this course Governor Dock cry has followed the example of some of
 the best and most beloved of his con- temporaries. Who does not recall the day when Thomas B. Reed honed his trusty razor and disclosed to public view one of
 the stiffest of upper lips?
 A little earlier than that Mir. Reeds warm friend Bourke Cochran put away the mustache and the diminutive tuft which framed the outlet of his matchless eloquence.
 Many New Workers remember vividly Al D,aao Ga left his ample whiskers In the waste bas- ket and appearing in Wall Street naked from the collar up, threw the market into a tremor of doubt and apprehension. The Sun at that time had the honor of giving
 a wide publicity to the appearance of the unmasked dean of the financial district and of taking prompt part in the resto- ration of public confidence.
 MT. Sage was preceded in this revolu- tionary measure by another financial statesman, the Hon. Levi P. Morton, who. shedding a pair of prodigious sideboards, achieved a fine distinction as dipfomatist, vice-President and Governor, and proved
 conclusively that 1t is not the hair that
 makes the man, though it may at some remote period have been the badge Of
 masculinity.
 The latest of the great men of finance to run the mower over his countenance is John D. Rockefeller. He bade farewell to his Dundrearys many years ago. and recently the mustache that long survived
 them has followed them into oblivion. It
 was never what you would call a great
 mustache. such as that of the Hon. Ash-
 ley W. Cole. for example. but always re-
 mained subordinate, the ornament but not the chief feature of the facial assem- blaze President Roosevelt is the most con-
 spicuous representative of the many fa-
 nous men of the present era who have
 grown less opulent of whiskers as their
 statesmanship has expanded. His cheek
 is now unruffied, though the mustache re-
 mains.
 These are only few examples of the
 fashion which lately overcame Governor
 Dockery-they are selection, not a cata-
 logue. They indicate pretty clearly the
 extent of the reaction from the days of
 1S61-65. The riotous beard has gone the
 way of the top boot.
 .hTe twentieth century Is beginning
 somewhat as the nineteenth began,
 though, of course, not so strictly and uni-
 versally smooth, but 1t Is doubtful if it
 will run parallel through all its quarters
 with It's predecessor. There were no mus
 tsches. no boards, when the nineteenth
 century dawned.
 Side whiskers began to curl and sprout
 before it had run far in its course, and
 they grew bolder after a time and en-
 circled the throat and chin, leaving bare
 the upper lip. The lip was submerged
 about 1860, and in the later years of de-
 struction was last to yield to the assaults
 of the barber.
 The human countenance began to ex-
 hibit itself again not long after the war,
 and from that time down to the very re-
 cent past the unsupported mustache was
 the prevailing mode. Now fashion is changing again, so that the young men
 are commonly completely shaved and their fathers have covered lips.
 The youth of today have the weight of civilized precedent with them. An ex-
 animation of the family albums of the last four centuries will demonstrate that the unwhiskered have had by far the better of it. For nearly two hundred years of that time the beard was not per-
 mitted to sprout.
 great deal of encouragement for the
 shaven but ambitious young man may be found in the Presidency of the United States From the beginning with Wash ington down to Lincoln's time whiskers found iodgment in the White House only
 three times, and in every case they were of the remote variety known as side
 boards, which offered no considerable ob- struction to the observation of the faces | to which they were linked.
 John Quincy Adams presented stub born pair, Martin Van Buren's were ami | eh1a in their moods, and Zachary Tay-