Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1888-07-20
THE SECRET WILL OUT.
rHE REVELATION OF Personal
TRAITS AND CHARACTERISTICS
Peculiarities Which Furnish q CIew to the
Disposition-The Identity of Authors.
Opinions of Servants and Tradespeople.
The Various Little Fads."


Opinions of Servants and Tradespeople.
The Various Little Fads."
Men betray their real characters in a thou
sand trifiing ways The professors of the art
Of delinaating dispositions do SO in various
fashions. One artist will undertake to de-
scribe character from the examination Of
photograph; another reads indications of
tastes and feelings in handwriting; nay, an
American savant has recently announced
that much may be learned regarding a man
by observing how he wears his boots. Every
one has some small peculiarities, which, to
the accurate observer, may furnish clew to
his disposition. There have been manifold
instances of strange and inconvenient re-
semblances between men, leading to cases Of
mistaken identify" and yet, probably, in
every instance there was some trif1ing and
overlooked personal which distinguished one
Dromio from the other. If alike in features
they differed in disposition.
1t is difficult, if not impossible, to stife the
manifestations of personal traits. Counter
ance and voice may be trained and disguised,
but mans identity will reveal itself in some
gesture, or glance, or trifiAg action, which
betrays bis real self to the accurate observer.
When Queen Elizabeth suspected some author
OF having written work which she disap-
proved, she angrily exclaimed ''that she
would have him racked to produce the au-
thor of the book" MAY, madam" said g
wise counselor, che is a doctor; never rack
his person, but rack his style. Bid him write
continuation Of the book, and will engage
to say if the first part be his or no." Authors,
Of all people, find it difficult to conceal their
identity. AS Hans Andersen remarks, every
writer has some popularity of style, which,
even if he publishes anonymously, enables
those who know his works to cry out, 'There
he is again!"
NOT BY THE SAME HAND.
Miss Strickland remarks that when the
"Lives of the Queens of England" were first
published her present majesty detected that
all the biographies were not by the same
hand, though all purported to be written by
Agnes Strickland. The queens critical acu-
men was perfectly correct; many of the
Lives" were by another member of the
Strickland family, who objected to be known
as an authoress, and therefore published I'M
der her sisters name Probably intimate.
friends of some of our modern collaborators
might be able to distinguish the work of one
writer from another, amid the incidents and
action of the story after the fashion of the
mendicant described by Sir Walter Scott,
who could identify the origin Of each crust
and bone in his bag. Meeting a stingy house
keeper who suspected that he had been I'M
duly relieved at his kitchen door, the blue
gown Indignantly defended the contents of
his "poke." "Na, ma, these are no your hon.
ours banes, they're the laird of is banes;
and yon's the laird of is crusts." The
initiated might thus tell us what we had owed
to Besant and what to Rice what to Erck-
mann and what to Chatrain.
There are some personal traits only OBJ
servable by what may be called professional
eyes. Servants and tradespeople. for exam
pie, probably form their opinions of us from
the characteristics which fall under their OBJ
servation in the course of their professional
careers In his "reminiscences Sir F. Pollock
tells story of housemaid who boosted that
she had always 'lived in ecclesiastical fami-
lies" and was won't to describe these cele-
brated church dignitaries from her own point
OF view. 'They was all very different, espe-
cially as regards the filling and emptying Of
baths. The bishop of - he always took his
bath Sundays and week days. Bishop-he
took his bath every day except Sundays; but
Dean - never took nothing but a wet
towel" Probably many of us might be sur
prised to find by what characteristic marks
we were best remembered by some Of our re-
tanners.
PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS,
The lower orders in Italy attach much i'm
portance to what may be called physical
characteristics, and speak to and of their
neighbors as often by some descriptive name
as by their baptismal title They have no
scruple in talking of the ''lame,n or the Zone
eyed" or the "humpbacked," nor have the
persons thus indicated any sensitiveness at
being SO addressed.
1t is often interesting to observe how diff
cult people find it to break off any character
istic habit they have unconsciously acquired.
'There goes the old shop" Scott would NUT
ter, as he sometimes ended his page of manu-
script with the Flourish" he had acquired at
the ''writer's' Office To persons who have
risen in life, the trifling peculiarities &C.
quired in their original sphere become sore
trials when they themselves are translated
10 loftier position. They are always OBJ
liged to be on their guard against some
familiar phrase, some trick or gesture which
betrays their plebeian antecedents. Seldom
can the influences Of early life be wholly
eradicated.
OF all the characteristics those which mark
social position are the most difficult to eradi-
cate. As foreigner Is sometimes detected
by speaking his adopted language too gram
matically, SO an elaborate attempt to veil
the manners and customs of lower rank
often results in proclaiming yet more dis
tinctly the actors real station. Richelieu is
said to have detected an adventurer who
passed himself off as nobleman by observ-
ing that, with excess of refinement, the ap-
parent grandee ate with fork fruit which it
was customary to take in the fingers. 1t is,
perhaps, well that some distinct traits mark
US a1-it prevents wearisome monotony.
How affectionately do we remember the
little characteristic habits and fancies of
those whom we love, more especially when our
memories In these matters revert to the dead.
The little "fads," as we called them, of
father and mother become sacred os we look
back upon them in our after years; and the
quaint peculiarities of many an old friend
are remembered lovingly when they them
selves have passed away.-LondonS Standard.