Moustaches, if I am to judge by the altered appearance of the latest film heroes, are coming back to favour. Even America, once the land of the clean-shaven, has succumbed, and in face of the taking of this last stronghold I cannot but wonder if the vagaries of fashion will ever present to us a screen "star" with one of those luxuriant beards that adorned every manly chin in Victorian times.
The 'forties, if I judge aright, was one of the few periods in history when beards were considered the correct thing. The so-called civilised nations of antiquity favoured clean-shaven faces, but during the middle ages beards were worn by soldiers, while the chins of the men who followed peaceful pursuits were smooth.
It was the advent of the peruke, I think, that saw whiskers go completely out of fashion. Perhaps, the re-introduction of semi-Victorian modes for women will cause our menfolk to blossom forth once more into "muttonchops."
The Irish Times, November 15th, 1930