Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1882-11-21

DR.. Felix l.. Oswald. Md. in the Pop,,lo,
Science MOnh.ty, discusses facial expressions and
the marvellous control which some men and
women have over their faces. Regarding the
question what vices Can be detected by the
expression OF the countenance he says:
Physical excuses always leave their mark.
ana there Is no doubt that an expert physician
caIirecOgniZe adrunkard. q debauchee. gluttOn
or an opium eater without any difficulty. and even
without confOunding the effects of their different
vices. But. though phrenologists assert and
every lover of Justice should wish 1t TO be- other
wise. overwhelming evidence obliges one to
admit that. as rule moral turpitude leaves no
such traces. If free from Notwithstanding
habits. plotting fiend may disarrn suspicion
with the ideal forms and soft eyes of Guido's
dream children. and the records OF history not
less than those of everyday life abound with
instances of such masked scOundres. Every
large pententiary in AnglO-:aXOndOm has
inmates who might pose for saints in the
Roman almanac. while an honest village
priest of Southern bavaria may combine
in his face the defOrmites of Breurhel's
seven devils by indulGing in sailed pork larer
beer and sauerkraut Some years ago passed a
few days at Brownsville. Texas. during the SEES
sion OF the United States district court The
cause celBre Of the season was the case of Fran
cisco Hernandez. Mexican bandit who had
infested the Rio Grande frontier for more than
three Years before he was caught i'm his favorite
trick OF rObbng the poor iarInhouses of his
countrymen whenever the absence of the able
bodied males gave him chance of executing
his designs with minimum risk to his own
skin. Though he assured the court that he had
no hard feelings against any of his victims he
mad been obliged, in the line of his business to
KILL EIGHT DIFFERENT
persOns-all females and minors His last enter
prise had involved hand to hand fight with
stout old woman. who broke his left arm before
he dispatched her. He was tracked to the Rio
Grande and. trying to swim the river in his
crippled condition, saw himself obliged to turn
back into pistol range of his pursuers was can
tured and arraigned for five murders I'm the sec
Ond and three in the first degree. I strolled into
the court house while his trial was going on
expecting to see one Of those bull-necked old
cntthroats OF the negrod type. who abound in
this region of murder and mixed races He
proved to be a pale-faced creole, Of some eight
cen or twenty years, slender built, modest
spoken and resigned looking to pathetic de-
gree His profile was absolutely perfect and
the same might have been said of his eyes, If
their look had not been too ghOst-like spiritual
to leave an agreeable impression Caesar
BOrgia, the natural son of Pope Alexan-
der W., was at once the wickedest and hand
soonest man Of his time. The fiend who aggra-
waited the guilt of the most unheard of crimes
by perpetrating them in the name of senti-
mental religion wore face which. in the words
OF Della POrta. might inspire a saint to live up
to every sublime precept of that creed. The
mere sound OF his voice succeeded where the
arguments OF Others failed: his eye could beam
with the inspiration of prophet while he medi-
tated those fdft assassin to which the records
OF the most barharOus nations furnish scarcely
parallel. 1t is pity that his skull has rot been
preserved. though we need not doubt that it
dld exhibit all those fine '.deyelOpmpnts' that
were necessary to harmOniZe with such a face
Children and childlike men, and most men
p'''O'7, are prepossessed by a handsome face
and repulsed by an ugly One and one can
understand Madame de Stael when she speaks
OF objectionable faces. Ugliness is something
abnormal, and originally. no doubt the conse-
quences OF sin-thOugh. perhaps quite uncon-
scious sin-against the physical laws of God.
But, even about moral aberratiOns, the lam
1t announces them In a different way. Resides
those OF the studied. calm expression. there are
indications in what Sir Charles Bell calls the
HABITS OF THE FACE,
the manner of laughing of speaking under the
influence Of passion. or of meeting a sudden
glance In these habits even moral peculiari-
ties may betray themselves to a shrewd OBJ
server. and often quite unbeknOwn to the object
of observation. Experience. in fact can teach
us to distinguish acquired from hereditary
beauty or ugliness. They may be combined in
the same face, but are altogether independent
of each other and differ as forms from manners
or talents from culture. The tongue Though,
can be taught to refute this language of the fpa-
lures hence the significance of first Impressions
PhyslognOmy and craniOlogy are yet far from
having been reduced to the rules OF a logical
system-'the one through want of cultivation.
the other in spite OF it." as the Psychologist
Camper said of his and Pastor Goetzes science.
In the meantime we all practice physOgnomy
lnstlnctively. though bymethOds which it would
not be quite easy to define What subtle differ
ences in the form of the features enable us to
Indicate the age of a man. his habits, his tenn
per, the average amount of his education. and
even the country of his birth,