1842

 

Charles Dickens, still writing under the name “Boz,” tours the United States and helps popularize the beard, then sometimes called “Boz locks.” 

Godey’s Lady’s Book is not a fan of the style. A man with hair under his nose was said to have “caught the moustache rabies.” 

Sarah Hale went on to add, “Persons who carry their faces behind a mask of this sort cannot be supposed to possess clear consciences, for honesty and fair dealing have no motives for any such concealment.” (113/147)

Boz with the moustache rabies.

* 

“This class is the controlling one in politics.” 

Theodore Parker, a crusading minister of this era, describes the power of the Lowells  and other Massachusetts families: “This class is the controlling one in politics. It mainly enacts the laws of this state and the nation; makes them serve its turn … It can manufacture governors, senators, judges to suit its purpose is as easily as it can manufacture cotton cloth. This class owns the machinery of society … ships, factories, shops, water privileges.”  (Halberstam, Book 491)