The daily morning journal and courier., 1905-10-19
HISTORY OF THE BEARD.
LOUIS JAMES, THE TRAGEDI-
 AN,
Tells of Times When Men Paid Taxes
 on Their Whiskers.

| culiarity adherent to the character he essays, and while critics may diner as to his mental conception, or histrionic discernment of the delineation, they all admit that he is past-baster in char acterization; there is possibly no actor better posted upon the relevant assOci- alton of boards to character than MT. dances is. He can tell you their ori- gin, their geographical or national sig nificance or the peculiar characteris- tics of the man hidden b5hind pecu- 1 liarly developed beard. All this can be evidenced by a scrutiny of the beardhe displays in depicting different charac- ters. His barbarian beard of "Ingo- mar is as different from his "Othello" | as his Macbeth from his King Lear, each beard worn is distinctly in har- mony with the historical traditions as- sociated with the same. MT. James was interviewed twin the other even- l ing while he was dressing for Virgin jus" and asked the. reason why he played 'virginius" without beard, when the great Foresrt wore side whiskers and a goatee. He said: T have made a close, study of Roman character, and while do not wish to reflect discredit on my illustrious pre- decessor, I fail to find any authority to justify me altering my present con | ception of the man. While it is true Romans wore boards at that time, | there is no evidence to show that they made any discrimination to any special I portion of the face; it was, either a | beard or no beard-in 50 B. c. The l goatee and mutton chop whiskers were effected many years later, therefore, l inasmuch as beard retards the facial expression, so necessarily in the delin- l cation of '''Virginius," have followed l Mccullough in that respect. And by the way, speaking of boards, do yotr know that the common tradition is 1 that the first man, Adam, was created 1 with beard, and inasmuch as ancient monuments and especially antique sar- | cophagus in existence in the Vatican, Rome, display every evidence to con- | firm this, therefore, we accept the orig I inal type of the Creators handiwork I as bearded" MT. James then warm ing up to the subject continued:
 ~"The Jews cherished the beard as a sacred thing. The oath pledged, By my beard was the most sacred assur- I ance the orthodox Jew could make; it was also considered. the outward sign of the true man, and whoever rudely | touched this emblem of manhood, as- sailed the dignity of the owner. You will also note that all, through Scrip ture reference is made to the beard in times of joy, sorrow, pride,1 humility, etc.. in fact with the Jew the. beard was the domestic, religious and patri- otic symbol of distinction. The an cient Greeks and Romans wore boards. Momer, Virgil Plutarch, Persius and Socrates and it was not until Alexan~ der the Greats rule that shaving. be- came evident. He ordered the Mace donians to%be shaved least their boards should prove handle to their ene- mics; this was S3O BIG, The Romans, However, were compelled by diatribe issued by Emperor Julian in 362 B. c. to forsake their boards as only bar barians were supposed to wear hair upon their faces, thus the men who were entrusted to remove the incipient fringe, referred to as Barbatulus, have become known to this day as barbers.
 Tn Russia, Peter the Great levied a tax upon beards: A chin. whisker, was assessed one rouble; while a goatee was taxed one copek, and worst of all, when a man refused to pay this tax he either had to have the hair pulled out or was shaved with dull razor. It is needless ito say there were few de- linquents.
 Germany. has always been consid- cred a bearded nation.
 .tThe wearing of whiskers in France has always been regulated by the GUS tom observed by the head of the na- ton, for instance; Francis the First met with 8 bad, accident that left an ugly scar upon his chin, hence he wore a beard, with the result that all France became bearded in a few months"
 Spain was likewise controlled. Philip the Fifth could not raise a beard, herce during his reign Spain went beardless."
 "Beards were not known in England until the thirteenth century, and dur ing the reign of Henry the Eighth a tax of three shillings and four pence was imposed upon all boards resem- bling the Kings"
 Queen Elizabeth levied tax of two shilIings upon all boards over a fort nights growth" Wise Queen Bess. Shakespeare refers to the beard as in- dicative of the character and position of the wearer; especially is this evil denced in "As You Like It," and Mac beth" America has not been much different from other countries. Whis- kers did not become fashionable here until the 6Os.} You know President Grant was the first president elected who wore, whfslers, and by the way, Grover Cleveland was the first elected with only @ mouctache, and while we may have many beardless presidents, we have yet to elect, thank Heaven, a bald-headed one"
 With that the eminent tragedian dis carded his own hoary toupee and ad- justed the luxuriant locks of "The Ro- man Father" and hurried to the stage to depict lines Sheridan Knowles hero "Virginius. "-Exchange.
 ]
 STILL IN THE MISSILES,
 Deeper and deeper runs the probe of the Armstrong inyestigating committee