WHISKERS!

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 71, 17 December 1917, Page 15

WHISKERS!

A COMING VOGUE?

THE CYCLE OF FASHION

Frank Richardson, the novelist, is dead. It is a pity (says a contributor to the Melbourne "Ape'') that one who so often madd us merry should himself die so sadly, [lis fiction was ephemeral. Hut he had one quality peculiarly his own, one vein that lie alone worked. Some writers take periods of history for their field, some take social conditions, or phases of thought. These give scope, for variety of treatment. Richardson restricted himself to one human feature, a. male feature at that, lie won lenown on whiskers. He abominated whiskers; he poured all manner of scorn, poked ail manner ot fun at whiskers. It is well he did i.ot live in Australia. He would have found scant material upon which to work-. •Everyone knows the essay on "Snakes iu Iceland." "There are no snakes in Iceland."- There are no whiskers in Australia. Certainly not enough to furnish a, novelist with a, tiring.. But they are found chiefly in our sparsely-peopled spaces.-.- And they are a- judgment on individual slovenliness rather than an expression of- Australian fashion. Thoro is a. place in literature for a history of whiskers. It would make interesting reading. The method of treatment would depend oh the period in which it was written. For the things one generation legards. with reverence another generation treats with ridicule. Whiskers are no exception. From the shaven polls of the ancient Babylonians to the walrus moustaches of Bairnsfather, ''i' malo hirsute ornament has been p, 0,l into every conceivable shape. A couple of generations ago a young mail's chief pride was his beard. There was no agony of ''my first shave" in those happy days. As soon as he could the young gallant grow a, whisker. He /.ecretly encouraged its growth, aided its gloss. There was a roaring trade in pomades and bears' grease.

It is safe to say no youth in, Australia to-day seeks to- win „a ' girl's favour by the beauty of his whiskers. Yet our grandmothers would probably wonder, however, you could go courting without a whisker. They must have found it a convenient subject when conversation lagged. You can picture the Bweet. young thing iu her poke bonnet and crinoline standing at the foot of the iane with the chap from over the way. She couldn't toll him about Charlie Chaplin's latest.' she couldn't toll him what, a brilliant gamo of bridge she was playing. AYhiit more natural, then, that the soft hands should seek agreeable employment in waggling John's whiskers, perhaps plaiting them, certainly comparing them very favourably with the. whiskers of the other Johnny who had—purely by mistake and without any encouragement from her—walked her homo the previous evening. Slio would talk the same, "tosh" as her granddaughters will talk this very night .to the unwhiskered grandsons of her'whiskered John. But to-night tho theme won't be whiskers. It is moro likely to ho, "Oh, how rough! Don't tell mo you shaved this morning."

Many tilings differentiate the present war from previous wars. Pictures of wars so recent as the Tioer and the Egyptian show largo numbers of men bearded. Pictures of the Crimea war never show an unshaven soldier. One of the first stories to circulate regarding the contact of our .Australian boys with English officers concerned this matter. A young aristocrat was inspecting the line. Ho encountered an unshaven Australian. Filing his monocle he exclaimed: "Haw, haw, no shave." In perfect mimicry of voice and manner came the retort: "Haw, haw, no razor." If woman wishes an answer to man's jibe at her changeablencss in fashion, she can find it in his whiskers. He is fashion's abject victim. .Everyone remembers the Kaiser moustache.. It was widespread. Yet it vanished in a night, like Jonah's gourd. The present military moustache succeeded. The inch under the nostril gives the impression of an unwiped nose. It recalls the moustaches of the old men who snuffed heavily, it first it provoked a smile. After the first dozen men dared it, wo knew it was upon us. Now everybody's doing it. Whiskers support the theory that history is a series of cycles. Their historical sequence can be traced more distinctly than most things,,and it is certain that, in the process of time, wo shall have a revival of whiskers. They will come in as surely as the schoolboy's, top and tipcat. Fancy can exercise itself anticipating results. Shall we sec a whisker on William Hughes and William Watt? Would we recognise either Willie coming down Spring Street with a flowing whisker? And

if Joe Cook's fatherly hoard was transferred'to Sir William-Irvine's severe, chin, the iceberg would not melt. But spectators would melt—in tears of laughter. Tfc is a matter in which women are entitled to an opinion, and they should he vigorous in their expression of it. ■-Whiskers-are -historically due, and are inevitable unless women bestir themselves. If they do not. wc shall have whiskers floating on the breeze in rivalry with their gossamer _ summer .veils; ivo shall see the iirctiiest girls on the Block appropriated by men with "fiwzy-wuray" whiskers. It was a womaii who said that a kiss without a moustache is like meat without salt. A kiss with a moustache and whisker -must give the impression of the. sail cellar tipped iulm the soup. A. whiskered face is notoriously inconvenient for such purposes. A girl cannot lilt her chin to a convenient angle without surrendering her soft' throat, to the saw-like sensation created hy the rough edge of a whisker, instantly causing hoi- to droop her chin, and causing the owner of the. whisker to miss the target, In.', "niibtless, eimevly sought. During show week a' -."heard" from the back blocks was staying with his sister in town. When be arrived his little niece regarded him shyly, fearfully. She was asked if she wasn't ■ going lo kiss uncle. She said. "Yes. but I can't see the place." In 111'" event nf whiskers, would auv -nf our (resli-lippcd maidens have difficulty in "linrliiig the, place?" Probably not. You cnuld TiaeV ftem tu line! the plan' every time.