“If you will cut it off and give it to me I will give you 25 cents for it.”

Times are tough now, but it wasn’t exactly a cakewalk in the 1890s. Consider a newspaper story of that era about a Minnesota lawyer who resorted to selling his whiskers in an attempt to escape poverty. Either this was an important piece of financial-page muckraking, or more likely, there was some extra space to fill in the paper that day and the editors got drunk and made the whole thing up. At any rate, here’s an excerpt from the story that originally appeared in the Minneapolis Journal and was reprinted in the August 14, 1893 issue of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle:

“In these troublous times when money is scarcer than the fabled teeth of hens or than the upper molars of the female of the bovine species, it has been noticed that a man will part with almost anything in his possession for the sake of a little ready money. But the worst case of destitution which has come to notice so far, is that of Hiram C. Truesdale, the popular young attorney, whose future always seemed bright and who appeared to be on the road not only to reputation but great fortune. But he has more and more felt the gnawing tooth of poverty and has tried in devious ways to escape the gnaw. He has offered his old clothes for sale at greatly reduced rates, but he could find no purchaser for various reasons, the chief one being that the trousers were too long to fit the ordinary user of such articles. Article after article was put up, first a toothbrush, then, a No. 1 Kodak, then a hammerless shot gun, then his vote, and in fact everything that he hoped something could be raised on, but to no avail. Finally, a gentleman appeared, who said to him in a moment of particular financial despondency: ‘Harry, you have a remarkable handsome mustache, which I have always admired as a thing of beauty, and if you will cut it off and give it to me I will give you 25 cents for it.’ Harry hesitated for a long time and tried to raise the offer to 30 cents, but they buyer stuck to his price and finally prevailed. The mustache was sacrificed and Mr. Truesdale was relieved from his financial troubles.“