The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1911-02-25
KANSAS COAGMENT
ERA OF THE BEARD1Ess MAN.

ERA OF THE BEARDIsESS MAN.
He must be an American one of
the characters of a recent novel, the
setting of which is in a foregn city. is
represented as saying: HE is clean
shaven-" The beardless face is, in fact,
quite generally regarded abroad as an
American characteristic
occasionally one will see a man who
is still faithful to the nustache habit,
or who still cultivates a beard. Side
Wnlskers are much more rare. The
goatee has become almost as obsolete
as the kind of beard worn by Horace
Greeley. Twenty years ago a heavy
mustache or thick beard was consid
cred ornamental. A decade ago men
began to abandon boards and clip
their mustaches short. Now even the
close clipped mustache has lost its
popularity.
The cause of the change rests in
some obscurity. The invention of the
safety razor may be in part response
bic for 1t. The charge that whiskers
form a hiding place for germs prob
ably had more to do with it. The bar
Der also may have helped the new
cult along by methods of which the
layman is ignorant The discovery
that the absence of beard or mus
tache makes some men look more
youthful is another factor of some i'm
portance, for the average man is just
as anxious to look young as the aver
age woman, although he would enter
an indignant denial if accused of any
yearning in that direction.
1t is interesting to learn that the in
f1uence of the new American custom
is beginning to make itself felt even in
Paris, where whiskers have for many
years been the conspicuous expression
of vanity. French BARRIERS have de-
voted hours to trimming and curling
the boards of wealthy customers. and
nil have
been the wonder of the world. French
men are now sacrificing this hirsute
magnificenee as recklessly as China
men are sacrificing their pigtails
'"They like the Yankee cocktail so
much" says Paris correspondent,
'that they have been led to try the
Yankee face. "-LeavenWorth Times.
THE NECESSARY WAR.
There is no use denying the fact
that slovenly old China is becoming
modernized. From head to foot the
old empire is bearing the appearance
of country being revolutionized from
the stomach outward. The queues are
being cut off and the shoes heightened
all for the comfort and appearance
of the race of heather that is gradual
ly soaking up knowledge of modern
methods.
But that isn't the most apparent of
the empires changes in heart. China
is gong to have a war. 1t Will be
such a war that the country will feel
it from one end to the other and that
is saying a good deal for the force of
it considering the great proportions of
China. Russia has already asserted
its uneasiness in respect to its neigh
Dor and has threatened to tear a
board off the back fence and turn the
dogs loose on China. That will set
things going and China will get what
it has been courting-a real live war.
1t is a regrettable thing that coun-
try must have a great back breaking
war before it can come out COM
mercially and educationally great ma
ton. China is far from either in COM
parison with what it might become.
There Is one certainty in store for the
Heather Chinee. That is a shakeup.
Wars ought not to be necessary but in
the case of China there is probably
nothing else on the counter which will
be "just as good. OTTAWA Herald.