A SOLDIER'S HAIR.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XVI, Issue XV, 11 April 1896, Page 405

A SOLDIER'S HAIR.

It was a singular fact that the late Marshal Caurobert, the last of the French marshals, offered in himself a constant example of the violation of the regulations of the army in which he was so conspicuous an officer. Throughout almost the whole of his military service Canrobert wore long hair flowing down upon his shoulders, like that of the famous American leader, Custer ; and like Custer’s, Marshal Canrobert’s hair was a sort of oriflamme for the soldiers.

But ever since the year 1833 the French army regulations have positively required that every officer and soldier shall wear closely cut hair, ‘without any tufts, curls or ringlets whatsoever ’ ; and severe penalties are provided for persistence in letting the hair grow long. Canrobert had a profuse mass of hair of which he was very proud. It was cropped, to his great grief, when he went into the military school of St. Cyr in [826 ; but when, as a young officer, he went into the Algerian War in 1835, he profited by the relaxation of many regulations there to let his hair grow down upon his shoulders again. Several years later, also in Algeria, Colonel Canrobert, bare headed, led a heroic charge at Zaatcha, and his long, floating hair, in the thick of the combat, served as a rallying sign to the Zouaves as they swarmed through the breach.

After this war Canrobert’s head of hair had already become so famous that no superior ventured to command him to cut it off; though General I’elissier, who hated him, once called him ‘professor’ in a cafe in Paris, and by way of excuse, affected to have mistaken him for a doctor of philosophy on account of his hair. The Emperor Napoleon 111. did once venture to remonstrate with Canrobert for wearing long hair. The marshal’s response was very ‘ Frenchy.’ ‘ Sire,’ he said, ‘ my hair belongs to history 1’ He did not cut it. It floated all through the French and German War, becoming legendary among the soldiers. Dong since it became snow white, and fell upon the old marshal's shoulders in his declining days ; and it clustered about them as his body lately lay in state in Paris.