beard / whiskers

beard. The hair that grows on the chin, lips, and adjacent parts of the face, chiefly of male adults. — Webster, 1882

whisker. That part of the beard which grows upon the sides of the face, or the cheeks; also, formerly, the hair of the upper lip, or mustache. Hence, the long, projecting hairs growing at the sides of the mouth of a cat, or other such animal. The fact seems to be that, until quite a recent period, the whisker, as now understood, was regarded as a mere adjunct or tributary of the beard. Indeed, there was no necessity for any distinction until the absurd and unnatural practice of shaving came into vogue. Long after that epoch—to wit, in the days of Dr. Sam. Johnson—the word whisker meant, not the hair of the cheek, but the hair growing upon the upper lip; the mustaches. Now the lexicographer derives whisker from “whisk,” a small besom or brush, which the facial whisker of our time sufficiently resembles with unaccompanied by the chin-beard. — Webster, 1882

Smooth-shaven faces is the newest wrinkle among the fashionable young men at the East. The whisker and mustache must go–so say the leaders of Philadelphia society. -The De Smet Leader, January 17, 1885.

     
Anyone who has seen a photograph of the real Charles Ingalls knows that he had an impressive beard, although Garth Williams neatened it up a bit for his Little House book illustrations. In an undated letter from Laura Ingalls Wilder to daughter Rose Wilder Lane, Laura wrote of Pa’s memorable whiskers: …All I ever saw of Pa was his face especially his eyes, his whiskers and his hair always standing on end. And too his hands on his violin. It’s interesting to note that in her handwritten Pioneer Girl memoir, Laura never mentions Pa’s beard once; it’s always his whiskers. In published book text, Laura describes Pa’s beard and hair as being the same color as her own: brown, and in Little House in the Big Woods (see Chapter 6, “Two Big Bears”), Pa’s beard is first described as long and silky. The two photos here show Charles Ingalls at the time of his marriage in 1860, and shortly before Laura, Almanzo, and Rose left South Dakota for Missouri. Ingalls was sixty-eight years old in 1894; do you think Pa’s beard was mostly gray by then?

Other Little House characters’ beards are described as long, soft, and brown (James Wilder), black and trimmed into a point (the Farmer Boy horse buyer), black and went around his face (Reverend Alden), short and black (Mr. Boast), unshaven and grew up to his cheekbones (Mr. Anderson), unshaved stubble of red (Mr. Clancy), or long and white and stained yellow as if with tobacco juice (Reverend Brown).

Wilder seems to follow the dictionary definitions when describing facial hair in the Little House books: whiskers are on the sides of the face and a beard hangs down and covers the chin. Only a few times does Wilder describe the whiskers of unnamed characters. In By the Shores of Silver Lake, she describes for Mary a man sitting in front of them on the train to Tracy as having side whiskers (typically called sideburns) and a bald spot on the back of his head, and in Farmer Boy, one of the men who judges pumpkins at the county fair has chin whiskers (suggesting he has no mustache or sideburns). And while living in De Smet, Laura mentions that the graybeards – meaning older men – sit together at the front of the church during services, probably not only for comradeship but in order to better hear the sermon.

Cat whiskers. The other whiskers that Laura writes about belong to the stray kitten who takes refuge from a dog under the hoopskirt of Laura’s pink lawn dress during one of Reverend Brown’s long sermons in De Smet (see These Happy Golden Years, Chapter 30, “Sunset on the Hill”). Laura notices the plump kitten’s little nose and whiskers when it peeps out beneath the ruffle of her skirt. A cat’s whiskers sense vibrations in the air and help them navigate their way in dark or close quarters.

Lucy the cat has impressive whiskers!

     

beard (BW 4, 6; FB 2, 8-9, 13, 16, 29; LHP 1-2, 6, 13; BPC 11, 24-25, 31, 40; SSL 13, 18, 28; TLW 21, 27, 29; LTP 3, 5, 8, 17; THGY 4)
whisker (BW 2, 10; LHP 19; TLW 13; LTP 19, 21; PG), see also mustache
     cat (THGY 30)
     chin (FB 21)
     graybeards (LTP 23; THGY 30) – An older man whose whiskers had lost their natural color and turned white.
     side (SSL 3)