River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1895-09-19
THEMAN FROM CUMBRAE.
BY GRANT ALLEN.

of distinguishing different physical
types and assigning their origin al
most borders ON the miraculous
didn't know what anthropOmetry
meant myself until met Sir TheOpho-
lis in a hotel at Oban. Before We had
been talking ten minutes together he
observed to me. abruptly: ''of course
you come from North SOMERSET
Now, I ilatter myself / haven't a
shadow of Zummerzet accent, so ] an
swered at once well, am "a Cleve-
don man. If it .es 10 that, but how
on earth did you rlnow it,"
''Uh. by the shape Of your ears" he
answered, land 10y the curve of your
eyebrows. Those eyebrows. l find. are
distinctive of North Somerset, east
ward of Bridgewater, but you've
Welsh blood "a we'll; GlamOrganshire,
] should fancy"
This is wonderful / exclaimed.
'sMy mother was a Swansea woman
What made YOU guess that? What
Welsh trait do you detect in me?"
Your lips and chin are South Wales,
Sir Theophilus replied, and the shape
Of your skull shows Silurian atfinities
Your ancestors ON that slice. imagine
must have come originally from the
Peninsula - tower"
Well, this was a lucky guess, as it
happened. but l hardly thought il
more: So To test him l asked: What
do you make Of my wife. then?'
lie looked fixedly at her for a mo-
ment Mrs. Wallis" he replied, lis a
little more difficult to place quite ac-
curately. She might be from Cumber-
land. but think it more probable that
she comes from Dunn frieshire.
You are a wizard my wife cried.
Il was born H. Dumfries, and my ia
thcr belonged To the county by origin,
but my InImother ON my fathers
side came straight from keswick.
After that every body in the room
wanted Sir TheOphilus To guess where
he or She came from. and he did it in
most cases with wonderful accuracy
One old clergyman, he said. had an
Aberdeenshire head. and could get no
hat Ia tit him except in Aberdeen And
this turned out Ia be So. for il seems
some Abcrdecuians have bigger skulls
than any one else in Britain. and spe-
EAdA HITS aAsANt u AAN AAAANAt ~ AAA AAAEAA
Another man he instl ntly detected as
a GalIowegian and third a. an East
Anglican lie WAS equally successful
with two young ladies from the Isle II
Wight. though he failed over a Devon
ian, and, not quite unjustItiably, took
an Orkney man for Shetlander. Ii
appea Rs there is some slight local diff
ference between these two types. for
the Orkney man Is a farmer who owns
a fishing boat while the Shetlander Is
"a fisherman who owns a farm.
For the next week, as chance would
have it. we saw much Of sir Theophilus.
lie went with ~ round Loeb Lomond
and stopped three nights at the same
hotel IL Glasgow. 80 we got quite
friendly. ana at the end Of that time
we decided 10 90 up 10 London to
gether.
When we stepped into our carriage
at ST EnOch Station va saw a tall AMI
morCse-lOol.ing man very comfortably
seated iu the corner opposite Us, lie
was apparently ABSORBED ia hIs local
par er. which he held before his face.
somewhat Obtr l>ivoiy. as IL he desired
to escape observation. But Sir The
Ophilus, who has a perfect mania for
observing faces and heads, determined
20 get a good look at him, and l could
SEQ him staring hard with all his eyes
at our ncighbor whenever he moved
the paper on one side This evidently
annoyed the stranger, but Sir
TheOphilus was not - be baked
After two or three good long stares he
turned round 10 me an murmured,
systematically: "IIexagonal.' Then l
knew that he was referring to the
shape of our neighbours skull. for 1t
was word | had heard him apply
mere than once before To heads we
had met in the hotels OF elsewhere
After awhile he tried 10 make the
stranger talk. But the morOse-lool-
ing man was clearly one of those un-
sOciabIe people who won't be dragged
into conversation on any terms. You
mind your business and III mind
mine" his demeauOr seemed To say as
plain Is words could say it. "Pictish.T
Sir Tneophilus muttered briefly once
more. The Pict can be recognized by
the squarenesS Of the knucklcs-" This
was whispered in my ear. but rather
think the man opposite heard it.
AT last Sir Theophilus could stand it
no longer. could see he was positive
" itching with desire 10 identify our
vis-a-vis from n racial standpoint lie
leaned over towards him blandlv and