Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-10-19
PERFUME FOR MEN
~ URIOUsLY enough. England. one |
Of the most sedate countries In |

OF the most sedate countries In
Europe. Is the breeding ground
Of most Of these modern movements for
| 4 more liberal construction of established
dicta as to how the male being shall
ldorn himself" observed a Washington
clubman. "Englishmen are now wearing
far more gaudy clothes than American
| men wear. and it seems as II the time is
not far distant when Englishmen. and
men throughout Europe, for that matter,
will be getting themselves up with the
same wealth of ornate investtture as dis
tinguished them back in the gay old CEN
turtles. The so-called SNUG Englishmen
are breaking away from conventional
forms In other ways. For example. 1t Is
again permissible for men to use scents
| IN England and that permission has been
extended so that 1t Is made by fashionable
men in the United States to apply to
| themselves. The resumption of the priv
| ilege of using scents began In England
| four or five years ago. Singularly enough,
| 1t was in England that the crusade
| against the usa Of perfumery by men be-
| gan about generation ago. The school OF
| so-termed wholesome, open-air novelists
| who followed the sybarittc Bulwer-Lyt-
tOnists hammered the use of scents by
men. They dubbed the habit effeminate.
unmasculine, or. worse than that, I'M
manly. Up to that period men used very
strong scents on their handkerchiefs. But
| they couldn't stand for being called
scented dariings.' and when the crusade
began the younger men abandoned per-
fumery. although many OF the old boys,
accustomed all OF their lives to the use
of scents, fatty declined to yield to the
lnti-perfumery campaign.
THE knock against the use Of any kind
of perfumery by men spread to this side
of the ocean, so that along toward the
middle of the seventies it came to be con-
sidered bad form for men to use any sort
of a scent in connection with the toilet.
Even toilet waters colognes were bar
red. That was the day of bay rum. Bay
rum, being for some reason considered
an essentially masculine fluid. was allow
able. Men who SURF cndered their per-
fumes were glad of this They went in
heavily for bay rum. They soused their
countenances with it when they shaved
or were shaved. and they even soaked
their hair in it. The aroma of bay rum
permeated every car and bus. The bay
-um aroma became tiresome. Men of good
form dropped 1t about a dozen years ago.
You scarcely ever catch that bay rum
smell nowadays. 1t is not used at all In
the best barber shops now, where good
toilet waters for use after shaving have
taken its place. Only the cheaper shops
use bay rum. and even in these shops most
Of the men when asked the bay rum ques
ton by the BARRIERS blurt out an en-
phatic No.
fashion in England resumed the use Of
toilet waters. BIT furtively at first by
way of experimentation, and they found
there was no protest. Their wOmenfolk
and women friends rather liked 1t. in fact,
and said so. Thus the thing caught on
again after the long inhibition, and II
promptly crossed over to this side. AS
yet the renewed use of scents by men is
limited to toilet waters. They may ap-
ply it to their faces after shaving. and
they may rub bit of the toilet water into
their hair at the sides if they elect Very
lately some men have taken to sprinklng
bit of the fayorlte toilet water on their
handkerchiefS. | believe the of ex
tracts by men is sure to follow soon. AS
far as the effeminacy charge goes. 1t is
q very good thing, ! think. that the re-
sumption Of the use Of perfumery by men
has taken It's start In England English
men are pretty rugged lot-masculine
folk. all In all. If they are willing to
brave the old effeminacy knock in taking
up the use Of scents again. l think Amer-
can men may take chance.
But I don't believe there is going to
be any renewal Of the crusade against the
use of scents by men. There isn't any
reason on earth why women should have
a monopoly of the use of perfumes. Just
remember some of the renowned men who
have used scents Julius Caesar was in
ordinately fond Of perfumes. When itch
ard, the Lion Heart. returned from the
crusades he had the perfumery habit and
o
was connoisseur in the perfumes Of his
day. Henry VIII of England liked Italian
and French perfumes almost as much as
he enjoyed his flirtations. Napoleon had
as keen a nostril for a sound perfume as
any man of his time. That bright boy
Charles James Fox. not only used all
sorts CT scents but knew all about where
and how they were made. Our own John
Paul Jones had almost a passion for the
extract of carnations. Decatur picked I'D
a n oriental
his crossings in eastern seas, and USED
them with keen enjoyment to the day of
his death. Charles Dickens was never
accused of womanishness. and he was de-
voted to perfumes. You never heard of
Ulysses S. Grant turning pale at the
sight of a mouse or anything Of that kind
did you? Well Gen. Grant used to lave
his face and whiskers in a superior Ger
man cologne after his bath every day and
enjoyed the stuff keenly.
AS a matter of fact perfumes are dis
agreeable to but very few men, and 1t
is the men to whom perfumes are ais
agreeable who are not exactly normal,
not the men. who preponderate in the
ratio of 1000 to 1, who really do like per
fumes, whether they are willing to admit
that liking or not. You can safely put
it down that a great many men who pro-
fess not to like perfumes are only adopt
ing that pose in conformity with the pass
ing custom which required them to give
evidence of that dislike.
mere are plenty OF elderly men or
position, the handles and blades of thirty
and forty years ago, who never did
abandon the habit of using extracts on
their pocket handkerchiefs. They were
the square-chinned old boys who declined
to permit other folks to run their private
habits.
- don't care fig how much out of
fashion it u.s. one Of hem once said in
my presence, I like perfumes, and my
father before me liked 'em, and so did his
father. and l am going to use perfumes
as long as l dad-binged please. l was
brought up among gentlemen who liked
and used perfumes. Why, dang it all, l
used my favorite perfume when l was an
officer fighting In the Wilderness cam
paign in front of Petersburgl And I'm
not going to give it up just because lot
of howlers go banging up and down the
world saying that it isn't good form or
good manners. I'm going to be the Judge
of my own good form and good manners
that's what | am going to be- "
Campaign Against Consumption.
From the Boston Transcript.
The Boston ConsumDtiveS HosDitaI in