Morris tribune. [volume] (Morris, Minn.) 1880-2000, 1885-12-16
GREAT MEMS NOSES.

The names of the subjects of Michael
Angeles most renowned works will
hardly be impressed on the memory rs
firmly as his nose, when his portrait
has once been seen. In his youth he
had quarrel with companion, who
struck his nose so violently rs to disfig-
IRE him for life. 1ycho Brahe had
similarly deformed nose. Dante nose
gives unique expression to his face,
and makes 1t a genus per Sc, known as
the Dantesque face, found only in one
great writer George Eliot.
But physiognomists, as such, have
always had great embarrassments In
passing impromptu judgments by the
rules of their silence. The case OF
Lavater is extremely ludicrous rs an il
lustration of this. A traveller showed
him two pictures, the one of robber
who had been broken on the wheel; the
other was Il picture OF Kant, whose
purity of life has scarcely been sur
passed Lavater was asked to tell
their characters from the pictures. lie
took up the robber, and after some eX-
animation said: ''Hcre we have the
true philosopher; here is penetration in
the eve and reflection in the forehead;
here is cause and there is effect; here is
combination, there is distinction; syn
thetic lips and analytic nosc!' Then,
turning to the philosophers picture, he
exclaimed: ''The calm, thinking villain
is so well expressed and strongly mark
ed in this face that it needs no COM
ment;" an anecdote which gave Kant
great pleasure, and which he was espe-
cially delighted to tell.
1t is for the reason of this notorious
failure of physiognomists that we dare
not tread upon the dangerous ground
of the meaning of noses, though much
can be indicated by the nose. 1t must
be remembered, however, that of tastes
it is idle to dispute. Hence, though
our own style OF beauty is the Greek
| nose. which continues downward from
the forehead in an almost perpendicu-
lar line, still each race and people adj
mire its own style of nose. The Semitic
nose has never been associated III our
minds with beauty, yet we are spoken
of contemptuously by the Arabs and
Svrians as 'Flat-nosed Franks" Shak-
speare, on the other hand, must have
| thought Turk S nose most abomlnabie,
for he takes care to have it thrown into
the witch's broth in Macbeth. The
| Africans are proud of the broad, flat
| nose, and some tribes even insert arti-
fetal objects to increase their pet de-
| formity.
A person with very thin nose is
rarely thought generous. So, too,
great breadth of nostrils is often assO-
ciated with coarseness. Horace has
frequently expressed his views about
the nose in his poetry. and he seems to
regard a short nose with 4 little turn
ND at the end as mark of jeering
and iibing person. Martial calls this
the rhinoceros nose, and says that it
was fashionable in his day, as it indi-
Gated satirical humor, which every
body was then affecting.
In Rome there was whole family
which took it's name from the nose-the
Nasones-of which Ovid was the most
celebrated member. Cicero, if Plu-
tarch be believed, likewise owes his
name to his nose, as he had an excres-
cence in the shape of q yetch-in Latin
cicer. Pliny denies, however. and says
that the Ciceros were called so from
being engaged in extensive vetch-rais-
inc. Be this as it may, Cicero's re-
markable snub nose is beyond dispute.
Gibbons nose, which gave his face a
most peculiar appearance, has found
its mate only in that of the recently de-
ceased Prince Gortschakotf, the Chan.
cellor of Russia; both these noses were
small. Some celebrated men, though
their noses were not remarkable for
size or shape, were still often reminded
of this protruding organ. The nose Of
Schiller, for instance, was very capri.
cious. 1t demanded the smell of rotten
apples to keep its owner in good spirits.
Equally capricious was Kent's nose.
Napoleon likewise disliked the smell OF
tar, for which he avoided, when posi-
BILE, voyages in ships. Phillip H., on
the other hand, smelt nothing at all,
and his reign was none the worse for
| th af