Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1905-08-03
MAN AND HIS RAZOR.
What is the Reason for the War on
the Whisker?

lLOndOn star
To the reflective mind there are few
things SO odd in human life as the
internecine warfare which the man of
today wages against the hair upon his
face. 1t is a strange comedy. Nature,
who might, one would say, be allowed
to know best, DEGREES that the face
and chin of man shall be bearded; man.
in these latter days, contends that
they shall be ware. So we have to
they shall be bare. So we give to
the morning sun the curious daily
spectacle Of millions of men armed
with millions of razors fronting mil
lions of shaving mirrors and moving
down the tender whisker sprouts of
twenty four hours growth. One does
not know which, in this fantastic
duel, to admire the most - natures
persistency, or mans. Every MORN
ing the man wakes up to lind nature
in occupation of the contested field,
the lances of her dark blue army
bristling on all the plains and valleys
on his face: yet does he not give up
his purpose in despair, but grimly
sweeps his devastating steel to right
and left among the little soldiers,
searching the hooks and crannies of
his chin for cunning ambush parties.
and strewing their corpses by the
hundreds on his shaving paper
What is thereason of mans quar-
rel with nature, his war to the knife
upon the harmless whisker? Appar-
emily a difference Of opinion on the
question of appearances. 1t is the
ignoble aim Of the modern man to be
above all things Smart and there
is a shagginess about the bearded
mans appearance which is counted
an offense against this ideal. 1t is
smooth age, you will have noticed.
We abhor rough measures, and even
If we haze to play man some dirty
treachery, we do it with smooth
speech on our smooth tongues and
smoot smile on our smooth faces. 1t
takes bold man man to defy this new
ideal of smartness, and you may gen
orally reckon upon the boarded man
being fellow unusual grit, with
will to be reckoned with
1t is a pity this question Of beard
wearing should be governed by the
witless whim Of fashion, for the
board is a physiological detail of
a mans nose or the heighth of his
cheekbones. Yet nature gets in her
revenge, for the modern man who
shaves his face, lays open to intimate
observation that part of him, where
his greatest weaknesses Of character
come, as 1t were, out to play. Has
it ever occurred to you to wonder
why nature grows hair on mans face
and leaves woman's bare. Why is
If not because the mouth is woman's
strongest point and mans weakest?
The tenderness that quivers about
wolnans lips gives her conquest over
the hearts of men; the uneasy cor
ners of a mans mouth under emotion
only betray him to capitulation.
Mans proverb that alrs fair in love
gets no conformation from nature,
who masks mans mouth with hair
that the feminine foe may not see the
coward flags of truce that his craven
heart would dangle on this outer bat
Element. Only after Benedick had
shyed did he succimb to Beatrice; is
there no significance in that? The ties
timony of Samson may also count for
something: eff Z be shaven,' said he
to Defilah, "then my strength will go
from me, and shall become weak and
be like any other man."
These beardless times are the hall
cyon days for woman. She has but
to give the call to battle with her
eyes; then it is just a tremble of her
lips, with perhaps suggestion of
tear upon her lids. and the man IS
down upon his knees, knowing that
the respondent CULVER Of his own IN
protected mouth has compromised
the battle beyond Reinforcement. But
the fashion will change, and then la
dies. lighting you behind our natural
entertainments. we promise you to
make the score more even than it is ut
present. You will find that .Wkatreat
orr pris0nerysith xseatestsnumanitSt