Self-Revelation

"I detest them especially when they are long. They are unprogressive, impracticable, unhealthy. They are masks for solemn humbugs, weak chins, degenerate and receding jaws. They are nests for bacteria. . . . Bah! I hate beards!"

Such were the self-revealing remarks of Premier Benito Mussolini last week to a Swiss correspondent who referred by chance, in Il Duce's presence, to the famed mutton chop whiskers of German Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz.

Once roused, Signer Mussolini continued volubly: "I will never tolerate civil officials or military officers with long* beards or whiskers. It is said that all wise men and saints of old wore flowing whiskers; but in the end they were cast into prisons or driven to live in caves. . . . You cannot show me one man who became world-great while wearing long whiskers. It is impossible!"

Questioned about his projected legislation to enforce morality (TIME, April 4), Signer Mussolini replied last week with extreme candor: "I myself reached my supreme goal after having passed through the stern discipline of life. ... I drank, I made love, I danced, I incited people. ... I did all these things with fury and energy. . . . With this complete knowledge of life I consider that Destiny has appointed me to purify the Soul of Italy."

*Finance Minister Count Giuseppe Volpi, General Emilio de Bono, Governor of Tripolitania, and many another potent Fascist have short beards.