{"id":"01KG8AMFD6RHF4472YQEQMSPV8","cid":"bafkreib5lo2clkmsmgphzv573pt4kuhbhn3w62g6gr6ymiffcolpdp7axi","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":14129,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:36.278Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 3","source_file":"01KG89J19NC56FFGBCM2SWEZZY","start_line":14067,"text":"cases, it is almost certain that not a sou’s worth of satisfaction\r\nwould have been received.\r\n\r\nI know not in what frigate you sail now, old Ushant; but Heaven protect\r\nyour storied old beard, in whatever Typhoon it may blow. And if ever it\r\nmust be shorn, old man, may it fare like the royal beard of Henry I.,\r\nof England, and be clipped by the right reverend hand of some\r\nArchbishop of Sees.\r\n\r\nAs for Captain Claret, let it not be supposed that it is here sought to\r\nimpale him before the world as a cruel, black-hearted man. Such he was\r\nnot. Nor was he, upon the whole, regarded by his crew with anything\r\nlike the feelings which man-of-war’s-men sometimes cherish toward\r\nsignally tyrannical commanders. In truth, the majority of the\r\nNeversink’s crew—in previous cruises habituated to flagrant\r\nmisusage—deemed Captain Claret a lenient officer. In many things he\r\ncertainly refrained from oppressing them. It has been related what\r\nprivileges he accorded to the seamen respecting the free playing of\r\ncheckers—a thing almost unheard of in most American men-of-war. In the\r\nmatter of overseeing the men’s clothing, also, he was remarkably\r\nindulgent, compared with the conduct of other Navy captains, who, by\r\nsumptuary regulations, oblige their sailors to run up large bills with\r\nthe Purser for clothes. In a word, of whatever acts Captain Claret\r\nmight have been guilty in the Neversink, perhaps none of them proceeded\r\nfrom any personal, organic hard-heartedness. What he was, the usages of\r\nthe Navy had made him. Had he been a mere landsman—a merchant, say—he\r\nwould no doubt have been considered a kind-hearted man.\r\n\r\nThere may be some who shall read of this Bartholomew Massacre of beards\r\nwho will yet marvel, perhaps, that the loss of a few hairs, more or\r\nless, should provoke such hostility from the sailors, lash them into so\r\nfrothing a rage; indeed, come near breeding a mutiny.\r\n\r\nBut these circumstances are not without precedent. Not to speak of the\r\nriots, attended with the loss of life, which once occurred in Madrid,\r\nin resistance to an arbitrary edict of the king’s, seeking to suppress\r\nthe cloaks of the Cavaliers; and, not to make mention of other\r\ninstances that might be quoted, it needs only to point out the rage of\r\nthe Saxons in the time of William the Conqueror, when that despot\r\ncommanded the hair on their upper lips to be shaven off—the hereditary\r\nmustaches which whole generations had sported. The multitude of the\r\ndispirited vanquished were obliged to acquiesce; but many Saxon\r\nFranklins and gentlemen of spirit, choosing rather to lose their\r\ncastles than their mustaches, voluntarily deserted their firesides, and\r\nwent into exile. All this is indignantly related by the stout Saxon\r\nfriar, Matthew Paris, in his _Historia Major_, beginning with the\r\nNorman Conquest.\r\n\r\nAnd that our man-of-war’s-men were right in desiring to perpetuate\r\ntheir beards, as martial appurtenances, must seem very plain, when it\r\nis considered that, as the beard is the token of manhood, so, in some\r\nshape or other, has it ever been held the true badge of a warrior.\r\nBonaparte’s grenadiers were stout whiskerandoes; and perhaps, in a\r\ncharge, those fierce whiskers of theirs did as much to appall the foe\r\nas the sheen of their bayonets. Most all fighting creatures sport\r\neither whiskers or beards; it seems a law of Dame Nature. Witness the\r\nboar, the tiger, the cougar, man, the leopard, the ram, the cat—all\r\nwarriors, and all whiskerandoes. Whereas, the peace-loving tribes have\r\nmostly enameled chins.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 3"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJVX0PNEYE6BW3F0KX999","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J19NC56FFGBCM2SWEZZY","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AMETE8NRCY2RCXG708FGC","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:38.310Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:55.391Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}