The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-08-24
THE SAINT OF
 THE BARRIERS

This is the festival of St. Bartholo-
 mew. who was long honored by the
 barbers as their patron saint. Accord
 ing to reports from Europe, the ton
 sorialists may soon stand in need of
 the intercession of their patron, since | the exigencies of war have again
 brought the beard into favor. Find | ing it inconvenient to shave when so
 many more important matters occupy their minds, the soldiers of all the war
 ring nations are now permitting their | facial foliage to flourish unhindered by the razor. The barbers of Europe are beginning to view this tendency with alarm, lest it spread to the civil | ian population and inaugurate a new
 era of the beard. Even now. in Ger
 many and France, the beard is com- ing into popular favor.
 St. Bartholomew, who was one of | the twelve apostles, was supposed to
 have been slain with knives, and ear- | ly in the history of Christianity knife | became his symbol. At a later period a razor was substituted for the knife, at least by the barbers, who were then surgeons and blood-letters as well as tonsorialists.
 A history of the rise and fall of the
 beard would make interesting reading. Perhaps the first reference to such fa- cial adornments is to be found in Le- viticus, in which Moses gives the com-
 mand. Thou shalt not mar the cor
 ners of thy beard" In nearly all Ori-
 eptal lands in ancient times the beard | was treasured and held in great res- pect.
 While the present war threatens to
 bring about a revival of the vogue of the beard, it was an ancient war whcih caused the adoption of the general practice of shaving. Alexander the Great ordered his soldiers to lop off their boards flor the military purpose of depriving their enemies of the op- portunity to use the whiskers as a ham dle in a tug of war. The fashion thus inaugurated in ancient Greece contin- ued until the reign of Justinian, when luxuriant whiskers again became the thing. Most of the Greek philosophers "set great store" by their boards, and Diogenes often asked beardless men if they repented of their manhood. The Romans commenced shaving in the fifth century B. C.. and Scipio Afri- canus is said to have been the first Roman to submit to the daily minis trations of the barber. The Roman emperors shaved until the time of Ha- drian, who permitted his beard to grow to conceal bad scar.
 All of the ancient inhabitants of cen tral and western Europe went unsha- ven. although Julius Caesar says the Britons only allowed the mustache to grow, and cut off the chin foliage. Early in English history the clergy of England were compelled to shave. One writer of the seventh century says the clergy were so absolute that they could be distinguished from the laity only by their lack of boards.
 Leo III was the first pope to startle the world by the spectacle of a shaved pontiff. Gregory " issued a papal bull which made shaving obligatory upon all priests. It is said that one bishop, presented with the alternative of parting with his luxuriant and treas ured whiskers or. his bishopric. chose to give up the bishopric.
 The golden age of the beard was probably that of the reign of Henry W of France. when the man who could not grow whiskers was consid- cred disgraced. It was at this time that the general custom of training and clipping the beard into various shape came into vogue. Among the various styles which were popular were the sharply pointed, the square, the round, the aureole, the fan-shapeds the swal- low tail, and the artichOke~leaf beard.