THE MASCULINE FRINGE.

Evening Post, Volume XLV, Issue 5, 7 January 1893, Page 1 (Supplement)

THE MASCULINE FRINGE.

There is no doubt that the fringe across the forehead, that is now so universal, is exceedingly becoming to the male. It imparts just that touch of delicate softness to the contour of the face which the revolutionised development of the sexes at the present time seems to call for. Our women are becoming stalwart in body, and robust in mind ; and coincidently our men are displaying a delicate diminution of muscle, and a mild amiability of disposition which, when accompanied by a softwhiakered face, and gracefully fringed forehead, are quite irresistible. It has long been foreseen by women that a change of characteristics and places between them and men was the order of development of the near future. The men, too, have now discovered this ; and the enthusiasm with which they have taken up their new role argues well for the peace of the domestic hearth, and the well-_eing of our future woman-governed estate. The new departure began, where it was inevitable that it should begin, among the cultured classes, and at Oxford and Cambridge more especially. But so rapid is the spread of culture in these days, it has already extended to the middle and lower class. Let Allah be duly praised ! The butcher's young man, calling the other day, had a fringe which was positively ecstatic — long, silky, shiny, with beautiful-perfumed marrow, its ample flow concealing all his otherwise too obtrusive forehead, and its extremities kissing with touching affection the pimply skin stretched out over his nasal bones — he was truly a " thing of beauty," and to some muscular Phyllis he will doubtless be a "joy for ever." It was almost impossible to imagine anything more glorious, even in the way of Greek gods. But a more striking object still awaited the writer that very morning in the person of the most juvenile of the porters at the railway station. To describe this youthful Hyperion, as Bablimed by an incomparable fringe of the most copious magnitude, is impossible. Let it be understood that astonishment, not to say awe, was the prevailing sentiment among all the first-class passengers. They felt that their day was over. We cannot but be grateful — we are grateful — both for the rapid spread of such finished culture, and for the beautiful ease and grace with which even the largest-limbed of our masculine population are yielding to the growing and inevitable supremacy of the other sex. — The Hospital. I