Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1913-02-14
nti-Razor War
May Be Started
by Westerner
Campaign Against BeardIess
Faces Favored by Editor, and
He May lnaugurate Move
ment for Whiskers' Revival.

A Western newspaper man is irri-
tated because of the copious maya
zine advertising of patent safety
razors, self-stropping razors and the
latest and most improved brands of
razor strops. They are all a de-
fusion and a snare, he thinks, de-
signed to make it appear that the
art of shaving has been so simpli-
fed that to the up-to-date man with
the modern equipment it is as easy
and painless as removing suds from
basin with a silver spoon.
All of which is erroneous, according
to this critic and practitioner of the
art. He declares that he has per-
sonally tested some hundreds of
razors, old fashioned, automatic,
self-scraping and lf-stropping, and
all the other kinds, and most of the
patent strops, and he declares that
shaving is still one of the chief woes
of man.
To his mind, if woman's hair is her
crown of glory and cross of care"
it cannot compare with the suffering
endured by the clean-shaven man.
Now and then some man is heard to
boast that he shaves in three minutes
and gets his cheek as smooth as
furniture salesmans tongue; but this
man is not to be believed. There has
never vet been razor that did not
try to mimic harvesting machine.
And there is no soap that will not
bite or smart inside the mouth. And
so he concludes that the art of shaw
ing is to be set down as one of mans
ignominious failures.
And from this the disgruntled
shaver boldly argues for the revival
of unabridged whiskers. He declares
that the tombs OF the Pharaohs con-
tain markings that have aroused
yearnings in many a manly bosom
to become another Moses. To his en-
vious mind, the Hebrew patriarchs
must have led remarkably comfortable
| lives. Josephus wore a beard, else
he could never have written his
chronicles. Shaving consumes much
valuable time. Whiskers leave leisure
| for reflection, study and creative eff
| fort.
| So wildly does this objector permit
| his whiskerial fancy to roam through
| the pages of history that he finally
declares that it is probable that most
| of the greatest men in the world wore
boards, although history may furnish
proof to the contrary. In any event,
| he is sure that the moments during
which men have aspired to greatness
have been those in which they were
in least peril of the barber
|
although it is to be surmised from
the heat of his remarks that he still
scrapes his face at regular intervals,
or has it done for him at one of the
regular emporiums established for
| that purpose. But the process has
become Objectionable to him, whether
he is a self-shaver or a patron of
| the barber. The barber, ancient and
modern, he declares, should take a
place beside the headsman of good
old Henry VIII, an operator of the
inquisition, or even a motorman on a
| fiat wheeled trolley car"
IT is to be suspected that this indi-
vidual has had extraordinary ill-luck
in his whisker- cutting experience
There are BARRIERS and BARRIERS, and
many of us can testify that some OF
them are not half bad. Once in a
while 1t is possible to find one who is
genuine artist, capable of making
the process of shaving a delightful
and even luxurious experience
There is the important mat tier OF
time, of course. Dallying in q bar.
Der shop consumes much more time
than self-shaving, and even wher
the job is done at home a man uses
up hundreds of hours in the course
of a lifetime that might have beer
devoted to some useful pursuit
OF course, 1t cannot be denied thai
the time a man spends In shaVinl
might be otherwise employed Many
a man, for instance, might write 2
book In the course of year with
the careful use of the time he de
votes to keeping his face clean. But
after all, does the world really nee,
lany more books? It may be fanciec