ITALY: Whiskers

“You are old,” said Benito Mussolini, 51, last week to General Attilio Teruzzi, 51. “You are no longer a lion. Your whiskers are getting grey. You had better have them off.”

“And you are almost bald, Duce. You had better buy some hair tonic.” the General did not reply. Saying nothing to anyone, he had his whiskers off so hastily that sentries of the Fascist Militia of which he is Commander failed to recognize him a few days later, refused at first to let him pass his own lines.

Though hirsute Fascist underlings were reported in a barber’s rush to become smooth-faced last week, Air Marshal Italo Balbo, one of the few blackshirts who has ever talked back to Il Duce, remained bearded.