Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 45, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 November 1892 — Long Hair and Genius. [ARTICLE]

Long Hair and Genius.

Longhair was in vogue among musicians and artists long after it ceased to be worn by the rest of mankind. The long-haired artist with his velvet coat, his sombrero, and his mysterious cloak, has altogether disappeared, and lengthy locks only linger nowadays, with a few exceptions, on the head of the musician. Indeed, this luxuriant thatch would appear to exercise a potent influence on audiences, for it Is said that, in the agreement of a notable artist about to go on a foreign tour, there was a special clause that he shall not have his haircut This possibly is an invention, but it is an extraordinary thing that musicians are well-nigh the only people left who give but limited employment to the shears of the barber. It is also a fact that their hair flourishes better than most people’s. I have recently heard a theory that the great prevalence of baldness in the present day is entirely due to the constant close cropping which has ex isted for the last five and twenty yeais. If you look at the portraits of celebrities of thirty or forty years ago, you will be perfectly astonished at the carefully arranged coiffure which meandered over their coat-col-lars, and you feel inclined to begin singing, “Get yer ’air cut," without further delay. You will 1 also be amazed to learn that most of them retained this extraordinary growth to the end of their days It is sincerely to be hoped that the theory which has recently been started will not be the means of the introduction of a race of long-haired men.—London Graphic.