Wyandot County Republican. [volume] (Upper Sandusky, Ohio) 1869-1903, 1871-08-24

SOME ore calls the face the index of the
mind; but it was a wiser observer, the
wisest OF observers, who wrote -
There's no art
To find the minds construction in the face"
There are great many people who
plume themselves on being what is called
"readers of character" We never knew
a professional reader of this sort who was
not constantly deceiving himself concern
ing his fellow creatures. AS general
thing, faces have an obstinate way of not
betraying the mental or moral traits of
their possessors. Character doesn't put
all its goods, nor even small proportion
of them, in its shop-window. The idea OF
reading at a glance anything so abstruce
and complex as the human hearLi lie Is
a wise man who can understand himself,
to say nothing about reading other people.
There are few things in which We are
so apt to be mistaken as in the off hand
estimates we form of men and women. A
man of dissipated habits carries signs of
dissipation in lis countenance; but, then,
intense mental labor, protracted anxiety,
and lack of exercise will give the same
iadeG, worn out expression to the face. a
friend of ouIs-a famous student of physi-
ognomy once pointed out to US, on the
street, q most eminent and exemplary
| divine, as being evidently member of the
| sporting fraternity-"a fine old sport, ne
called him. Our friend was illustrating
| his fatuous theory OF reading character.
| He committed the easiest of errors.
1t so happens that man of the greatest
| determination will have weak mouth,
and the most vacillsting and purposeless
disposition will 60 with firmset lip and
defiant eye. One of the bravest Of our
young generals in the late war-a rough
rider, and reckless in battle to the verge
OF madness-is a gentleman so unobtrusiye
in address, and so gentle OF face, that q
stranger, meeting him casually, would al
once place him in that category of tenn
porizing souls who are supposed incapable
of saying boo to goose. Bret Harte was
as true to nature as to art in his descrip
ton of the denizens of Roaring Camp"
THE assemblage numbered about hun
dred men. One or two Of these were &C
tual fugitives from justice, some were Grim
inal, and all were reckless. Physically
| they exhibited no indication of their pasI
| lives and character. The greatest scamI
had a Raphael face, with q profusion o.
blond hair; OakhuTst, gambler, had thS
melancholy air and intellectual abstraction
of Hamlet; the coolest and most coura
geous man was scarcely over i've feet il
height, with q soft voice and an embarrass
ed, timid manner. Perhaps in the minol
details of fingers, toes, ears, etc, the
camp may have been deficient, but thest
slight omissions did not detract from theil
aggregate force. The strongest man haC
but three fingers on his right hand the
best shot had but one eye" These few
touches, hasty and ulconsidered as they
seem, prove that the writer is shrewd OBJ
server of human nature, reader of charac
ter, in the best sense. The conventions
novelist, who has studied novels rather thai
life, makes his Williams the most obvious
barefaced Williams. The black sheep is 81
very black, physically and morally, thu
wonder is that the sanity hero or thu
angelic heroine does not hand him over t
the police the instant he appears. II il
not so unknowingly that Shakspeart
drew his rascals. 1t was rot so he drew
Iago-outwardly most engaging, soldier
ly, capital, frank-eyed fellow, though
many actors, judging by their mouthins
and hang-dog manner, seem to think tina
Iago was cheap transparent knave. Al
he is usually represented on the boards
he would not have deceived Othello fo
q quarter of an hour. Othello would
have split him perpendicularly with hi
scimiter at an early stage of the proceed
ings. Iago was witty, plausible, fasci
mating, soulless villain, cool, adroit, anC
sunny-just such villain, in short, as tht
professional reader of character would
select from crowd as being an open faced
honest man and right good fellow
1t is only in books that the sharp-fsa
tured man is always irritable, and The
round-faced man always jolly. In rea
life, it is often the scamp who has th,
"smile that is childlike and bland" ant
the choice spirit, the heart of true gold
that wears unprepossessing clay about il
-Egery Saturday.