The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1911-02-18
BY IA VoYAGEUESE.

News SerSice.l
Paris, Feb. lS.-When the French
have nothing else to do they pass the
time in abusing Americans. whom
they accuse of all kinds of crimes
against lie grande nation" If we
are TO believe the French. Americans
alone are to blame ii the French ma
ton is decadent, Americans are re-
sponsible for the gradual disappear
ance of politeness in France. they
have introduced cocktails, crackers
and American shoes. But all these
crimes are forgotten in the cry that
is going up from the women OF France
against the American face" The
women here love whiskers. soft. and
well-trimmed, brown. blonde or black
and the smooth shaven face of the av-
erage American fills them with dis
gust. They have found worthy eN-
ponent of their Indignation in NJ. Mi
guel Zamacois.
Neither beard nor moustache. says
this "spirituelle" writer is the device
of the genuine Yankee for, from the
American point of view everything
For the American. essentially praci
cal and positive, the beard and nous
tache are superfiuous growths. In the
opinion of Uncle Sam, ornaments are
as useless on the face as on the ia
cade. He shaves the one and evens
and levels up the other. No favorites
no billy-goats, no Dundreary whiskers
on the former; no mouldings, carvings
or festoons on the latter. A face
/ should only contain eyes, nostrils and
mouth: faces and houses are both
meant to be useful Besides a beart
and moustache require delicate anG
continual attention-time that nigh,
be devoted to business. Therefore
the American razor suppresses brut
ally and imperatiyely all excuse fol
fastidious idling in the course of the
toilet.
| The American business man ha:
further discovered that the nous
tache is an obstacle to the perfec
emission of the voice. especially whel
using the telephone, and the beart
is dead weight and proHtless. Ii
verbal discussions the beard is excess
and useless baggage; it cannot blu
be hurtful to volubility and articula
ton. The moustache is filter which
retards the issue of the decisive word
which muffies and deforms them il
their passage-in word, Increase
the likelihood of ambiguity and con
fusion.
All these motives for passing sent
ence of death on the hair of the Wis
age have long seemed puerile to tn
Frenchman. For years the American
habit of shaving the upper lip, tn
cheek and the chin has been looke'
upon in France as nothing more thai
chronological curiosity.
Traditionally the American must b,
"glabre," just as the Norwegian mus
be fair and very shaggy. the China
man furnished with a pigtail and thu
negro woolly-haired. What would tn,
cartoonists do if they had not this in
fallible method of indicating an Am
erican millionaire, tin king, or al
emperor in molasses? But despit
the gradual invasion of American
isme" in all it's varied forms, French
men had turned deaf ear--or, shal
l say an unresponsive cheek?-to tn
iinsjdious advances of the safety razor
According to their fancy-and a
times their fancy is very fanciful-th
sons of the sister republic piously an
periodically held on to their ancien
Gallo moustaches and their flowin
boards. Only comedians used a razo
on their faces as rule. in order tina
they might the more easily stick o.
false hair. AS for magistrates, &C
mirals, walters and domestics, the
made up for the absence of hair fror
their lips and chins by a wealth O
favorites and "cotelettes"
But this fine spirit of national indie
pendence was fated to disappear
"Snobisme," the spirit of imitation
the necessity of applauding and adopl
ing that comes from outside, ever,
thing new and exotic, all these sent
ments which create the fashion, enc
ed by inducing Frenchmen to smea
their faces over with soap and appea
with chins and cheeks which locke
as if they had been rubbed with en-
cry paper. Yesterday they were onl
one or two, who passed for "des e,