Beaver: Taking the mick twenties style

I was a bit shocked by the following report, I always imagined the Kursaal fans respectful and not at all loutish, how wrong can you be:

Saturday 18th November 1922 Away 0-0

SITTINGBOURNE F.A.Cup 4^th Qualifying Round

There must have a been a full 800 of the United's loyal supporters, most of them wearing with a touch of pride, the colours of their team, who poured out of the station at Tilbury, crossed the River on the ferryboat, climbed the quaint old streets of Gravesend clustered together on the platform and passed the three quarters of an hour, in which they waited for a special, which would bear them to Sittingbourne, on roaring "Beaver" to any unfortunate gentleman who happened to wear a beard and in other forms of primitive but by no means ill-natured banter. Others went over by motor boat and charabanc*. The homely little town of Sittingbourne was reached by one o'clock and by two, the ground at the back of the Bull Hotel was livelier than it had been for many a day. I was told that the holding capacity of the ground was 5,000 and it would have been extremely difficult to have given another hundred sight of the play. Nearly a thousand of United's supporters made the by no means comfortable journey in order to cheer their favourites on to what they thought would be an easy victory. The crowd that jostled their way on to Midland Station were in radiant, optimistic holiday mood. These Kent Leaguers proved of sterner stuff than their opponents had credited them with being. They fought a sterling fight in which no goals were registered and they lived to fight on at the Kursaal on Wednesday.

From the Southend Standard 23rd November 1922

I thought taking the mickey out of strangers was a modern trend, but apparently not, so the next time you see someone with a beard ............