The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1890-08-24
An INDEX TO CHARACTER.
The Forehead Usually Thought to
be the Gate Of the
Soul.
Popular Blunders Made by Experts
IN the Art Of Face
Reading.
The Real and tho Hidden Brow-Advant-
age Of Being Bald-value Of a
Forehead.

G0T00040.
Written for The SUNDAY INDEprNpESr.l
Everybody is more or less Of a physiog-
nomist. We all fatter ourselves that we
can read character in the features though
most of us would find it hard to write down
the rules we think guide us. The fact is we
don't go by any Get of rules. We Judge
from the general contour of the Eface, and
not SO much by the formation of the fea-
lures as by the predominant expres sion of
the whole. Two faces may be nodded e1-
actly alike, same shape and size of nose
same kind OF eye and lips, same foreheads
and hair, and yet we see at glance that
the characters are quite opposite. How IS
this? Training, cultivation, tho influence
of circumstances. greater power of will,
have operated to give maximum
of what we call expression to the one, while
the other has grown mp anyhow, like an un-
tended garden.
Many students Of character make big
plumbers by accepting what certain pseudo
BILE signs or laws. They read that such
nose indicates SO and so, this one denotes
something else, and thus with each feature
in turn. The student goes into the street
and whenever he sees nose of such and
such pattern, he calmly assumes that it
must always accompany the characteristics
laid down in the book. The absurdity of
this sort of character misleading sooner or
later leads him to drop the whole business
as delusion and snare. All piecemeal
judgments are misleading, but the face as n
whole is rarely other than a truthful dial
wherein you may read the records of the
life within.
Features alter. Eyes, nose and mouth
may change their aspect from a thousand
causes, accident may main them, pain dis
some popularity Of form or expression.
All these things battle the student of
features. They are like the hands on the
clock dial, they move and change with
wear or external influences. But the fore
head is like the dial itself, more of
picture calm. open, less mobile. The skin
upon it may wrinkle and discolor, but in
the main the forehead remains substan-
TALLY the same throughout life. Some
ancient philosopher prettily called it the
gate of the soul. because through it you can
enter the temple Of the owners inner
being.
Without pressing this idea too far. it is
certain that great deal is to be learnt by
correctly noting mans forehead, and
woman's, of course. There is also good
stupid iargon about "high'' and 'low''
foreheads, lofty brows," etc. The owner
Of the conventional high forehead is popu-
larly supposed to be a saint, or at least has
mighty intellect. The criminal in hand
cuffs is supposed always to be distinguished
And these superstitions survive and flourish
among us despite the fact that the ablest
and noblest men have their full share of
low foreheads just as the biggest rascals
often own the most angelic "arohed brows."
Let us look into this little further.
W. hicyh
and low in foreheads let us reflect (Which
il more than they do) that they speak only
of what meets their careless eye. They go
by the look of the thing, the superficial as
If the mans hair grows down in front, they
jump ~ the unjust conclusion that he has
q low forehead. If he happens to- be short
of front hair, owing to badness or being
born with less extensive wig than usual
they elorify him az genius because of his
be several ounces more brain under the
low-haired brow than the bald-front head
never occurs to them. The hair is the
great thing, the size and shape of the head
nothing at all.
stone and notice how the growth of the hair
makes the foreheads into slow" ones, 30
called. If these mon had been raised in
low life and graduated in Jail, they would
have served to illustrate many popular"
ACQUIRE Oh CQdTACC0E I0hNAuS db spcClMeuS
of lawbrowed interiors. But their lines
we're cast in happier places. with the result
that one became the American Emerson
the other the English Gladstone. Now look
at an eminently respectable gentleman,
whose very noble. high-arched forehead be-
benevolence, with the bumps Of music,
poetry and moral sentiment highly de-
veloped. Sometimes look at his profile and
you will then perceive that # his hair had
remained on his sloping forehead there
would not be more than an inch or two Wis
ibIe The gentleman does not happen to be
famous as an author or philanthropist He
runs a saloon on the BOwery and has dwelt
ct Sing. as harborer Of thieves and a
"fence.~
To get at the quality Of forehead. and
approximately, at the quantity of brains
inside it, You must take profile view ant
ascertain the facial angle. The shape of {
vertical line drawn SO as to touch the fore
head and the lips indicates the difference Il
the hYoS Of an AT
casian. The fuller the frontal bone the
greater are the observing faculties: and fol-
this reason, among Others, the man who
wants to see ahead most clearly will SHADE
his eyes with his hands: 80 It follows tina,
than usual over his eyes, has them shaded
already, and, consequently. has more accu
rate perceptions Than those whose eyes
seem to project beyond the line OF thei
eyebrows. A long nose, as in Gladstone
case, may accompany a forehead APPARENT.
low, because OF the low growth o
the hair on it, but the length o
the nose, will be found to CORE
spond with the height OF tn
forehead bone, despite the hair. 4 fore
head NAV slope gracefully backwards mt
still be high one. In such case the typ
is generally that of marked intellectual
beauty and repose corrugated brow
from skin wrinkles or knobby formation G
bone, generally indicates a strongly marke
temperament, not always happy one. 'fh
perfect forehead should be smooth, cleal
white and spacious, no matter how low tn
hair grows. It should retain ITS youtht1
placidity to the last, and be the index to
self-possessed and lofty soul.
Here is a gallery of ''low foreheads.
warranted to astonish the knowing ons
who never see virtue except in bald 'front.'
Look up the portraits of Grant. Mcclellan
Logan and Sheridan among soldier