ROUGH CUSTOMERS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 283, 30 November 1933, Page 6

ROUGH CUSTOMERS.

3 Of all .activities: that are foredoomed to 3 failure shaving is the most frequent; plough- - ing the sands (which, in spite of the proverbial ' phrase, no one ever attempts) is not a more J hopeless adventure than shaving the chin, since : the crop thence removed obtrudes, itself afresh 3 each morning. "Men for their sins have shaving, too, entailed upon their chins," noted ; Byron, who had plenty of sins and perhaps flound time to reflect on them in the course : of his matutinal penance in front of a mirror ■ (says the "Manchester Guardian"). Nevertheless, a story from the United States now points ' with groat clearness to the moral that if you ' intend to bo sinful (in soma directions) it is 1 certainly safer to bo clean-shaven. A coastguard on a patrol vessel off the Connecticut " coast was admiring a glistening yacht through his telescope; he noted spotless paint, trim uniforms, but then, so good was his glass, ho noticed stubbly chins. The crew were all in need of a shave —which suggested no sort of discipline on the part of tho captain or a private yacht which was not altogether what she seemed to be. The patrol vessel put alongside to investigate—and the spotless yacht with the unshaven crew turned out to be a common rum-runner with a cargo of "hard liquor." Thanks to a singularly astute coastguard, they had spoiled their ship, with all its finery, not for the sake of a ha'p'orth of tar, but for the lack of five minutes with a brush and razor. Their, sins had found them out, and the inadvertent whisker had betrayed the unlawful adventure. Perhaps only tlie pure in heart can sport the scrubby chin with, safety—and even the pure in heart might make a more instant and favourable impression if they took the trouble to interfere daily with Nature's incorrigible ambition to grow hair where most modern males, have decided that it is not needed. As for the rum-runners, they failed in one of the first requirements of their clandestine career. They forgot that to bo smooth-faced is one of the traditional preliminaries to successful deception.