San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1897-10-16
The CHIN as AN INDEX.
A Face-Reader Tells what He Thinks
of Some Mems Features.

oil plllOCu III IhS ~ &SOeAS
Clinique, he replied:
'sThe thing is unscientific. The writer
says the protruding chin marks the get
there type of man; that the broad chin
denotes dignity; that the dimpled chin
indicates coquettishness; that the re-
treating chin is the chin of failure, and
that the other kinds of chin which he
describes stand for the other traits of
character which he associates with
them. His statements are unsupported
by proofs or illustrations from life or
from pictorial art. Had he given the
names of people, notable historical per-
sons, rather than contemporaries, hav-
ing chins of the several varieties spoken
of, his description of the traits of their
possession would have been more en-
pertaining; for, in each case presented,
one could have formed his own opin-
ion as to the correspondence between
the feature and the mental quality
which he seeks to associate with it.
Cortez, for example, Cromwell and
Peter the Great were certainly men of
the get-there type but he would hardly
say that they had protruding chins.
$50 also in regard to the other kinds
of chin, from the dignified and coquet-
fish to the executive and the humble.
would say, let him show me the por-
traits of some of the parties whose chins
give confirmation to his theory. My
own study of the pictured features of
the eminent men of past and present
times has led me to believe that face
reader must be very wary when he
makes remarks upon the chin as an
index to character. could refer you
to the features of plenty of men who
are yet among the living. There was
in New York last year a famous Chi
nese statesman of the get-there type,
Lii Hung Chang, not very yielding or
helpless or easily discouraged; yet no
one who saw him while he was here
failed to observe that he has retreat
ing chin, one which retreats almost
out of sight, so that not even his best
friend would speak of it as protruding.
What about that? Again, it will he ad-
united that Bismarck belongs to the
get-there type of humanity; and yet
his chin falls behind the frontal line
and also the line of the molar bone; II
is far from protrusive. Look at the chin
of the pugilist, Fitzsimmons.
81 could take up all of the kinds of
chin described i'm the Chnique's article
and show you that plenty of the peo-
pie who have any one of the kinds do
not possess the mental or moral char
acter set down over against it by the
writer in that periodical, who must be
a very poor sort of face reader.
There are physiognomists who, after
studying a mans features from his chin
and nose to his upper story, can make
a pretty fair guess as to the nature of
his invisible traits. But they cannot
always be sure that they get things
right, and everybody knows that they
often get things wrong, more especial
ly when they have not previously had
any knowledge of the mans life or
idiosyncrasies. 1 repeat that it is very
hard to get at the characteristics of
anyone's mind by his chin; and, in
truth, it is not easy to get at them by
any or all of the lineaments of his face.
Many a great man has had features
which would very surely lead the sharp
est physiognomist to draw erroneous
conclusions from them. Who, upon see
ing the face of Thomas Carlyle, with
out knowing of his works, would ever
have taken him to be the great thinker |
that he was?
There have been plenty of heroes
whose looks were misleading; and lots |
of poets whose features could not be |
made to rhyme; and Some saints whose
faces would never remind you of a
cherub; and any number of other peo-
pie between whose facial conformation
and mental traits it would be impossi-
BILE to trace the correspondence. I
know strong character who has a
neck of no account, an anomalous
mouth, inexpensive eyes, a narrow
brow, and not much of a chin; you
couldn't guess what kind of a soul he
had by looking at him. A witty writer
once said that if Cleopatra's nose had
been shorter, the face of the world
might have been changed; and perhaps
it might. Look at that feature in
Socrates, or in some of the mummied
who were once lords of the
Nile, or in several of the English kings,
or in nearly all the illustrious Chinese,
most of the Finnish bards, OF in squads
of the German princes. have seen a
picture of Capt. Kidd, once famous as
a pirate, and it seemed, when carefully
scanned, as though genius were there.
1t was said of Alirabeau that he was
ugly enough to be the nephew of the
Old Serpent. Thus things were, and
thus they are yet. So it goes all along