Whiskers

Cleverest of sales arguments is a convincing proof of some point that needs no proof at all. The fuddled buyer, agreeing with the salesman before the latter has uttered a word, follows the ensuing exposition with delight, and his support of an opinion is quickly turned to enthusiasm for a commodity. No modern corporation has used this sales method with more humorous ingenuity than Colgate & Co., soap makers. Up and down the land, in all the better magazines, Colgate & Co. has suggested that shaving is sensible and whiskers are silly. Last week, for its support of this curious view, Colgate & Co. was sued for $150,000 by a certain Miss Ella C. Patterson of Milwaukee.

Now the Colgate advertisements have not based their arguments on modern facial trends alone. They have gone back to ancient times, citing the examples of the great military men of the old world and the new, Alexander of Macedon, Scipio Africanus, General Ambrose E. Burnside. They have pointed out that "when Alexander first took command of the Macedonian army he gave his soldiers the once-over and ordered them to cut off their whiskers lest the beard afford a handle to the enemy." They have quoted Pliny: "The younger Africanus was the first who adopted the habit of shaving every day." Of General Burnside they said:

"It is generally believed by people who speak flippantly of 'side-burns,' 'sideboards,' etc., that burnsides were so named because they cluttered up both sides of their proprietor's countenance.

"That hypothesis cannot be supported by a single hair. Burnsides got the name from the gallant General Ambrose E. Burnside, a Civil War hero, who wore that kind of whiskers."

This advertisement, captioned "WHEN BURNSIDES WERE IN BLOOM," came in due course to the attention of Miss Patterson of Milwaukee, a niece of the General. Contending that Colgate & Co. by using her relative's whiskers as a "springboard from which to launch a jocose and humorous sales argument," had obscured the record he won on the battlefield, she took her case to Arnold Furst, Manhattan lawyer. Lawyer Alan Fox will represent Colgate & Co. The two counsels were 'classmates at Yale in 1903, partners in many a college prank.