Sacramento daily record-union., 1890-07-26
CONJUGAL RESEMBLANCE.
TESTING OF A SOMEWHAT CURIOUS
THEORY IN GENEVA.
Do Married People Grow Like One An
other as Their Linked Lives Go
Oman Open Question.
From the London Telegraph.I

From the London Telegraph
A curious theory has just been tested,
though not, we fear, in very scientific
way. 1t has long been asserted by pbysi-
ognomists that married people grow like
one another as their linked lives go on, so
that after a series of years the husband
will bear more resemblance to his wife in
face and expression than he does to his
own sister. The wife also will seem nearer
in type to her spouse than to her brother.
We do not know whether this fancy has
any foundation in fact If it has, how is
the approximation worked out? Does the
masculine element predominant in the
eventual pair developed out of the distinct
units? Or will fine, clear-minded girl
"a little lower than the angels" and
"above the Senior Wrangler"-compel the
countenance of her mate take her lines
and angles? Some people assert that fair
hair and blue eyes are going out-not of
fashion, but of the world-that every year
the human race is becoming darker, and
that if our beauties want gold in their
locks they must buy it at the chemists or
rdressers-sometimes purchasing it too
dear.
If, then, the brunette is destined to sur
vive in the struggle for existence, will
dark wife gradually throw a shade over
blonde husbands pleasant face until he
becomes rather swarthy, in order to keep
~.
complexioned husband subdue to his own
tint the white and red roses of fair
brides cheek until she becomes as shady
as himself? This kind of "shadowiug''
seems to us worse than that alleged to be
praeticed by the Irish police. Then, has
character anything TO do with it? VIII
the stronger mind carry the day? Will a
weak woman married to a man of strong
intellect come to resemble him in face
even if she cannot aspire to his mental
powers? Then, suppose the wife is pretty
and the man ugly, will the result be an
average plain elderly couple like each
other, instead of the very different bride
and bridegroom of the wedding day? Or
has ugliness something in it more positive
than beauty? We all know that some
forms of rugged unbeautifulness carry with
them a look and consciousness of power,
so that, though wanting in the usual at
tractiveness, they have kind of charm
Of their own. This is a serious matter for
lovely woman when she stoops to man.
Had this theory been fully explained to
the merchants youngest daughter she
might have hesitated much longer before
she allowed her pity to prevail on her to
make the matrimonial alliance celebrated
in the history of Beauty and the Beast.
The Photographic Society of Geneva
has been testing this dogma of gradual and
growing conjugal resemblance 1t took
photographs of seventy-eight old couples,
and an equal number of adult brothers
and sisters. On careful inspection it was
found that the married couples were more
like each other than the brothers and
sisters of the same blood. Thus matri-
monial approximation beat family like
ness. We do not consider the experiment
entirely decisive. We must remember
that the years as they pass by are rather
impartial In their treatment of the human
race. They .whiten the heads of both
sexes in much the same way-although
some women would rather dye than admit
the fact. Then age has apparently as
much pleasure in stealing the luster from
a lady's eye as from that of her husband.
Time equally blanches the once rosy cheek
of the woman and the once ruddy counte-
nance of the man. Not all the cosmetics
in the world can hide lines and little
touches, even IN the face of the most craft
ily-prepared lady of fashion. We have
thus one grave cause why, independent of
matrimony, any lady and any gentleman
of matured or advanced years should bear
10 each other a certain resemblance Age
has stamped both with certain marks yis-
ible to the naked eye, and common char
acteristics tend to diminish the original
and distinctive individuality of each.
There are other reasons why man and
wife should be like one another. They
are generally of the same class in life, and
the inherited traditions usages and Gus
toms of a class have a certain effect in
molding the face and in modifying Its ex-
preston. The peasant, the town-trader,
the well-to-do farmer, the professional
man, the born pleasure-seeker, have all
their types; and when, as generally hap
pens, the husband and his partner are
both of the same class, there is a certain
conventional basis OF resemblance. Then
We must remember that in some rural or
isolated districts, all over the world, men
seek sweethearts from the families around
them, and have done so for generations.
In the old time IN Ireland no wedding
party was complete without the genealog-
lcal old lady who proved that the bride
and bridegroom were cousins-perhaps
only seventh or eighth, but still of the
same blood. In these cases common an
cestry would account for a certain resem-
blance. This intermarriage of neighbors'
children also produces not only family, but
distinct types. In some parts of ireland,
Scotland and Wales a hundred years ago
all the men in a valley OF village seemed
chips of the same old block, and strangers
could hardly distinguish one from another.
To Europeans a Chinaman seems ludi-
crously like his wife, and Oriental eyes see
the same kind OF resemblance between
Englishmen and Englishwomen. We
should require much more searching and
thorough experiments before we accept
this theory of progressive conjugal approx
imation.
We should like to see photographs of
Mr.. and Mrs. Brown as they were fifty
years ago, utterly unlike, and pictures in
little" of the same couple as they appear
now, very like one another. We should
also desire photographs of aged couples
not united to one another, to compare
their general likeness with the particular
resemblance said to be developed by the
matrimonial chain. 1t would be interest
ing, also, to find out how many years it
takes for the approximation to develop
May plain man catch the infection of
lovehness from his pretty wife after ten
years, or twenty, Of companionship? Is
there beauty microbe that may be in
hailed, so as TO give lack -luster ewes a
briiliancy not their own, to straighten
pug nose, and draw forward retreatine
ching This theory gives certainly great
advantage 10 the owners of feminine love-
illness. Husbands will now fear more than
ever to quarrel with their beautiful wives.
for the proud heinr may gay aNr Ianae