Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1882-02-19
CURIOUS IF TRUE.
Notifications of the Human Face cause
by Residence IN Cities.

Notifications of the Human Face Caused
by Residence in Cities.
[From the London SPECTATOR
Among the things not readily defina-
BILE may be classed the notifications
which the human countenance under
goes when subjected, for any considera-
bic length of time, to the influence OF a
great city. What are these modltioa-
lions, and in what way are they effected?
That they exist no observant person Will
deny. Cities, being as they are the
concentration of all that constitutes
modern civilization, and consequently
of all that is most opposed TO primitive
circumstances of life, canpot fail to pro-
duce the most marked effect upon the
expression of their inhabitants. The
influence of the country is to create re-
spect. The absence of racket and bus
tie in woods and fields, the broad ex-
panses of hill and vale, the slow and
orderly process of the seasons, the
breadth and tenderness of the coloring,
and the feeling that all that surrounds
has q pernanence and propriety, COM
pared with which the fussy empiricism
of mans works is as the cracking OF
thorns beneath pot and as sparks that
fly upward-all these things tend to i'm
part quietude and inapprehensiveness
to the nerves and thoughts altogether
in harmony with our environment. We
let our faces alone, so to say. Our
sensuous organization fulflls It's normal
functions of reaching outward in quest
Of impressions. 1t is never put upon
its defense = never compelled to
transform itself from channel Of COM
munication with the outside world into
buckler against such communication.
1t is a common observation that the
countenances of the inhabitants of a
country follow the lines and general
character Of country they inhabit.
There is something Of the prairie in the
wild visage of the Comanche Indian, and
something of the mountains In the
rugged features of the Switzer. The
eartn we stand on is our mother, and the
spirit of her forms is discernible III the
lineaments of her children.
But if this be true of the country, an
alogy teaches us to expect correspond
ing though contrasted result from the
artificial influence of cities. The mod
ern significance Of cities is the coming
together Of multitudes Of men for the
purpose Of money-getting. Such COM
ing together involves conaict-an oppo-
sition Of the interests of each individual
to the interests of all the rest. The con-
sequence is that every one arms himself
against his fellows. To De q good bust
| ness man is to be-not dishonest, in
deed, for honesty is the best policy
but capable of assimilation, Of conceal
ing ultimate designs, of habitually ain
tanning certain conventional demeanor,
| which must needs often be at variance
with the feeling underneath. Now, to
do this is to carry on two lives instead Of
one, and the effects of that feat are soon
| percephble in the expression Of the
face; the refining in the mouth makes
| burrows in the cheeks where nature in
tended no burrows to be; the inscruti-
bility of the eyes is attained at the cost
of wrinkles which are unknown to the
| most venerable savage. A certain rigid
ity gradually settles upon the features,
and the scope and variety of expression
become limited, because, the surface
having become accustomed to the con-
| tradiction rather than to the declaration
of what is within, and one form of con-
tradiction serving for many varieties of
declaration, the range OF the facial move
ments naturally is circumscribed,