The Cairo bulletin. (Cairo, Ill.) 1???-1928, 1909-12-11
WAR ON WHISPERS
Declared as Nesting and Breed
ing Place for Disease Germs.
Senator of Kansas Says State Has
Suffered Greatly from Popular I'm
preston Il Is a Sort of Home
for Galways.

Topeka, Kan-If DR.. Crumbine OF
the. Kansas state board Of health sue.
jceeds in his new reform of cutting
off the whiskers which have made a
certain brand Of politics famous In
this state, thousands of people viii
rise up and call him blessed. DR.
Crumbine, In the interest of public
health, declares that the long, I'M
kempt boards, which grew luxuriantly
upon the faces of some of the men OF
Kansas, are nothing short of a nesting
and breeding place for germs.
Kansas has been getting away from
the whisker habit, until now only few
of the older men wear long boards.
The young men of the state have
learned that whiskered face is Ia
booed in good society, and few there
are that are displayed in the ball
room, the reception parlor or the
theater. 1t Is the middle-aged and old
men who still cling to the hirsute ap
pendage, and these constitute the
class which DIR. Crumbine is trying to
reach in the interest Of the public
health
The health board secretary, after an
exhaustive investigation, says a heavy
growth of whiskers is the natural
hiding place for germs and the pr
mary cause of many of the infectious
diseases which battle the skill of the
medical fraternity. A man with a
thick, heavy growth of whiskers I'm
der the chin, Dr. Cfumbine says, rare
ly ever permits water, much less soap
to find its way to the skin, thus cur
rying around with him constantly a
veritable nest of germs sufficient to In
feet whole neighborhood.
Not few men who believe In the
whisker as a facial adornment have
written to DR.. Crumbine to protest
against the liberty he takes in seeking
to out and curtail Kansas boards, but
nevertheless, the general public Is
with the doctor In this latest crusade.
as the letters which pour into his Of.
fee every week amply testify.
State Senator Brady of Lawrence,
who has long fought whiskers. Is one
of DR.. Crumbine's stanch supporters
He says: I'm the days of Papulism,
Kansas acquired reputation that has
done the state incalculable harm. In
the east there Is general belief that
the whiskers In this state obscure the
sun, and no cartoonist would think of
picturing a Kansas farmer without
adjoining his chin with beard akin
to that worn by a Russian nihilist
The man who runs largely to whisk,
ers Is generally considered incapable
Of producing anything else, and is
| more or less of a joke. Hence the
popular impression that Kansas is a
sort of perennial harvest home for
galways has done the state serious
harm.
IAN official ukase against side.
boards and hangdowns from DR.. Crum.
bine will do much to advertise the
true sentiment of Kansas, which Is
unalterably opposed to superfluous
whiskers. The Kansan who wants an
object lesson in long whiskers should
make trip through certain sections
Of Missouri and Arkansas. There he
will find more germ protecting boards
in an hour than he will see In Kan.
sas In week. The fact is that lilac
whiskers are so rare in Kansas that
when stranger comes into a town
wearing large bunch Of them he Is a
sensation"