Webster City freeman. [volume] (Webster City, Hamilton County, Iowa) 1884-1946, 1920-04-19
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/ A RENAISSANCE
OF WHISPERS
4 4 * &%+%+

4 Xxx 4 4
MarshalltOwn Times: A metrOpili-
tan newspaper. reciting the woes of
the man who does not shave himself
and the steady rise of shaving costs,
predicts a return to whiskers. 1t notes
that whiskers are becoming more and
more noticeable on the streets and fore
sees a general whiskerizatiOn of the
pOulace.
To the present generation whiskers,
the old time hirsute adornment and
DISAGREEMENT Of forty odd years ago
and before have been by way Of curl
osity. This generation was raised
without wliiskers but to their fathers
and grandfathers whiskers were not
only common but fashinOable. Every
body wore whiskers in those days. The
man who couldn't raise whiskers was
pitied more than blamed. He was like
a one legged man at a footrace or a
deaf mute in a debating club.
Going back to grandfather he wore
his whiskers in n fringe around the
lower angle of his jaw. The rest of his
face was clean shaven, chin, cheek and
upper lip. The whiskers seemed to
overflow his neckbands and framed his
face like a fringe on an old time lamp
mat. Most of the fellows wore them
whose faces looked out of a jungle
of hair like a pumpkin in a field of
ragweed. Some Of them, however,
cared for and cultivated them. They
c0mbed and trimmed the edges and
viewed the result with pride as a farm
er looks on his corn field when he lays
it by" There was old Blake, who drove
the stage, whose whiskers were four
feet long and reached below his knees
when he let ZEN hang. He cOmbed and
nut them around his chest under his
vest. He was as proud of that hank of
hair as any one of the seven Suther-
land sisters of their browning glory.
He grew whiskers as some folks raise
chickens and rabbits because he loved
'em, and needed something to pet. Chill
dren used to beg to sse Blake's whisk-
ers. There were,whiskers trimmed to n
pbint, the predecessors Of the Vandyke
50 dear to the modern medical student
and young doctor.
About the time of the civil war Gen
eral Burnside introduced a new one.
He improved o. the old fashioned-
lambreduins known as Dundreays
which hung below the powl and gave
the world of whiskers 'burnsides."
The burnside was one Of the later
hirsute manifestations preceding the
vandyke and the solitary mustachc. 1t
gave a dashing and devil may care cf-
feet and was very popular among the
young men.
Whiskers had their advantages.
They hid a large part of cOuntenances
to the Improvement of the general eff
feet. Many Il woman who married
whiskers has tainted when she saw
the g~Oggle-eyed and lantern-jawed
wfeck REVEALED by a razor. There was
n dignity as well as a cOncealment
about them. They covered a weak chin
and made prestige for the fool who was
not all u fool and who knew enough to
keep his mouth shut tight. The ply
siognOmist who nowadays watches the
working face of his victim for the psy-
Geological moment to say Sign here
ran against a barrier when he looked
into that mass of hair. Any oil stock
salesman will tell you that whiskers
are hard to sell. And a good crop of
chin whiskers of the ancient type was
a better chest protector and %precaution
against pneumonia than "A chamos vest.
Dig out grandma's old photograph
album and hunt up the heirloom dau-
euerrotypes. If there is to be a renais-
sance of whiskers you can see what
you and the boys are going to look
like.