Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 83, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 April 1918 — Prediction That Whiskers May Be Fad After the War [ARTICLE]

Prediction That Whiskers May Be Fad After the War

London newspapers are predicting the full beard will come into fashion both in Europe and America as a result of the war. War always has influenced the style of whiskers, observes the Louisville Courier, even in the time of Alexander the Great, who required his soldiers to shave off their beards because a beard was a handle which an enemy could seize. The Crimean war in the fifties brought the full beard into fashion again. In the campaign British soldiers spent months in the trenches where they had no chance to shave. Their beards grew and grew and they wore them when they returned to England. The English papers say that many soldiers coming home ‘ from the trenches are bearded,, and, unless precedents fail, the full beard is going to come into fashion again. Should our American troops return from the war with beards, we may look for that fashion to become prevalent again In America as it did after the Civil war.