Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 242, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 October 1910 — Razors of Centuries Ago. [ARTICLE]

Razors of Centuries Ago.

We wear things and use things daily of the origin of which we have not the slightest idea, and were we to be would be at a loss to answer. This was illustrated when two young men, well but quietly dressed, were admiring a well-known picture of life in the time of Julius Ceasar, which was exhibited in a store window not far from Herald square. One of the men remarked while looking at the picture that he wondered how the Romans kept their faces smooth and whether they ever had shaved; and, if they had shaved, what were their razors like? Neither of the of the men could answer the question, and so they immediately consulted various authorities en the subject and found to their surprise that razors were used for shaving in a very early part of the world's history. The Egyptians used some kind of a razor, though the Levitioal code expressly forbade the shaving of the beard. It is believed the primitive shaving instruments were made of sharpened flints. Savages in the remote islands scattered throughout the Pacific use two pieces of flint of the same size for this purpose, and pieces of shells or sharks’ teeth are also used.