RETURN OF WHISKERS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20650, 23 August 1930, Page 3 (Supplement)

RETURN OF WHISKERS.

FASHION IN NEW YORK. i BEARDS AiaAIN ON YOUNG MEN. MORE CONFIDENCE FOR YOUTH. The beard is coming into favour with /the young men of New York. Increasing numbers. of covered faces are appearing among /poets and budding literary geniuses between the ages of 20 and 30. And the cult is spreading to other circles, where there is a desire to escape from the or- youth. ! Just-what the trammels of youth are, in the present age, might seem a mystery. But there are trammels, nevertheless, to which youth strenuously objects. They concern the disappointing fact that one has to wait 12 months before becoming a year older. '. . . ' Being a youth is a bore, because the ciders do not take what one says with the responsibility which goes with experience, says a correspondent. —Youth is discovering that, while it is allowed to express any opinion it pleases, the opinions are politely passed over and make no impression. JjEence the beards. The writer continues: —" To become the , possessor of fi fine facial adornment means, in the eyes of youth, to camouflage one s inexperience while acquiring a certain dignity , and distinction which gives larger authority to/one's words. So, from ear to chin, efforts are being made to accept Einstein's theory that time is only relative and apply it to conditions of intellectual /life. " So youth is becoming graver and more' ponderous. , The bright, snappy judgments, borif of the inspiration of the •moment, are giving way to rnoro_ deliberate opinions. Whiskers are giving youth confidence to say it doesn't know, when some totally new question comes up in conversation "To be able to say ' T don't know ' ■without feeling a sense of inferiority has been one of the chief problems of youth during the pre-whisker period. It has constantly baffled youth to draw some elder person/, of acknowledged reputation, into an argument, arid then hear the elder admit quite nonchalantly that he ' doesn't krn4w ' something. Youth never quite knew whether the elder was laughing up his sleeve or really was willing -..t0 admit ignorance.

" But lat/ly has come the conviction that when a person really acquires knowledge, he acquires tho distinction of being afclo to say ' I don't know,' as an indication that after long pondering he still has an open mind. " Now ai/ open mind for unwhiskercd joutn has been a horrible indication that one's judgment is inefficient, and does not toork with the instant precision that gains marks in the schools and universities. Rut niore horrible still has been tho realisation that Wlie/i one commits oneself to u declaration 011 tne spur of the moment it becomes necessary to back up one s opinion. This is frequently difficult when tho actual farts all point the other way. " By the Adoption of ■whiskers, however, these impediments to youth—it is hoped by the twentv-to-thirties —will disappear."