Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1890-09-25

The Latter a Result of Racial Heredity-
Culture Is Not Handsome.

Culture Is Not Handsome.
Beauty Is result of race. of circum-
stances, such as personal fir edom and mode
of life, and of continuous diet. It of in
telligence. and still less of the acquisition
of knowledge, which latter can only bene-
iii the Individual whose features are fixed
past serious change before study is even
begun. A man or woman inherits his or
her face, and mental habituda. though it
may greatly affect its meaning. can no
more alter Its shape than ASST luous train
ing can turn a smooth fox terrier into the
why kind from Airedale.
1t may even be doubted. strange as many
will deem the assertion, whether continu-
Gus education will produce beauty. whether
the growth of intelligence will even In ages
yield the physical result which we notice
the authors of Uropias always assume. as
If it were a scientifically demonstrated con-
sequence of the new society. The most
beautiful black race in Africa a tribe IN
Nyassaland, on whose looks even mission
aries grow eloquent. and who are really as
perfect as bronze statues, are as ignorant
as fishes, and though they have discover
ed the use of fire. have never risen to the
conception Of clothes Of any kind. The
Otaheltan, when discovered, was as un-
cultured as the Papuan now is: vet the
former approached as nearly to positive
beauty as the latter does to positive de-
formlty. The keenest race in Asia, and.
as all who know them assert, the strongest
in character, the Chinese, is. DECIDEDLY the
ugilest of semi-civilized mankind: while
the Hindoo, if sufficiently fed. is even when
as Ignorant as an animal, almost invari-
ably handsome. The CircasSinns. who
know nothing, and are rather stupid than
exceptionally Intelligent, are physically a
faultless race. far more so than the Ger
mans, who, though the best trained peo-
pie In the world, display as marked COM
lnonness OF feature as if the great soul ptor,
Nature, had used good clay, but taken no
Il ouoe about the modelling. Some of the
very ablest among them belong to the fat
nosed, puffy-cheeked, loose-lipped variety.
The keenest race in the world and prob
ably the one most susceptible of culture,
the Jew, presents few types of beauty,
being usually at once hook-noSed and fab
by checked, though in physique, as in
thought, that race occasionly throws out
transcendent examples. The tanned Arabs
of Egypt, who seemed to possess poor
brains and OF course have no education, are
often extraordinarily handsome; while in
1860 the grandest head In Asia, head
which every artist copied as his ideal of
Jove, belonged to an Arab horse dealer,
who, outside his trade, knew nothing.
No modern men of culture would pretend.
in mere perfectness of form, to rival the
old Greek athletes, who intellectually
were probably animals, or the Berserkars,
who were for the most part only hard
drilling soldiers. The roval castle which
has been cultivated for 1000 years, seldom
produces beautiful men, and still schooner
beautiful women; most princesses, though
sometimes dignified, having been marked,
as to features. by a curtain ordinariness
often wanting IN the poor and especially
the poor of certain districts, like Devon in
England and Aries and MARSHES in France.
Devon is no better taught than Suffolk.
but mark the difference in peasant forms.
In the last century the ablest men in Eu-
rope were remarkable for a certain super
fluffy of flesh, of which Gibbons face is
the best known and most absurd example:
and in our own time intellect, even hered-
ltary intellect, is constantly found dis
associated with good looks, and even from
distinction. some of the abiest men beinr,
externally heavy and gross, and some of
abest " omen marked by an indefniteness
of cheek and chin, as if they had been
carved by the fingers in putty No strang-
er ever saw Tennyson without turning
round, but Browning would have passed un-
noticed in any English or Austrian crowd.
The air Of physical refinement, which is
what continuous culture should give, is
precisely the air which is often lacking
among the cultivated, as it is also in many
arlstocratic families. Indeed. although
caste must mean more or less hereditary
culture, it is doubtful if it secures beauty.
1t does not in the royal houses, and in any
regiment though an officer or two will
probably stand first, the proportion of
splendid men will be found greater among
the hon-commissioned than the commits
stoned officers.-London Spectator.