The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1897-02-25
BECOMING INDIANS.
CLAIM THAT AMERICANS ARE OEVEL-
OPlNG ON THAT LINE.

OPlNG ON THAT LINE.
Increasing Resemblance In Faces to the
Aboriginal Type A Study of Heads,
With Especial Attention to the Resi-
dents OF Pennsylvania
1t is an extraordinary question in an
thropo1ogical science which has been
propounded popularly Of late. The in
fuence Of environment upon the race
resident in the United States must i'll
the course of four centuries produce GER
tain marked and undeniable physical
results. 1t is not generally acknowledge
ed by American anthropOlogists that
there is 4 tendency Of rcversiOn to the
type indigenous to the soil. But foreign
students Of race, with more perspective,
have offered interesting food for refec
ton. A writer i'll the Chicago Times
Herald, commenting on the assertion OF
the French authors that on this CONT
ncnt the American white man has varied
toward the Indian type, offers support
ing study which is curiously fascinating
possibly vastly important.
First, the familiar faces Of the carica-
turists' creation are called in as wit
ncsses. The Y Yankee and the southron-
large and loose limbed-of these pictures
are types, even as the stout, full faced
John Bull is u type found in another
environment. Both American favorites
of the cartoOnist have high cheek bones
and usually excellent straight noses.
nf
tifically admissible. The faces given US
by the caricature makers are impress
slOns, not testimony.
Scientific, however, is the study Of
fered of the Pennsylvania Germans-a
happy, thrifty, frugal people, who have
been subjected to American conditions
for nearly two centuries, with very lit
tie intermingling with other races,
much less than the English people in
New England or in Virginia.
1t is true that the pcrvasive and be-
quilting Irish have intcrmarried some
what with these old Pennsylvania set
tiers, but i'll the main it is a very exclu-
sivc pure blOodcd Palatinatc stock
Data have been secured relative to a
large number of school children and to
adult males from 25 to 80 years of age,
and many copies of portraits Of original
settlers. 1t appears that stature in
Crcases and that other important gener-
aliZations may be made, tentatively Of
course. The increase of finger reach is
Marked and the head measures are im-
pOrtant.
THE anthropologist places consider
able value upon certain proportions or
relations between measures, says the
student Of the subject. THUS the length
of the head and the breadth of the head
when compared, give numerical express
sion, which is called the cephalic index
TO find it the length is divided into the
breadth and tie result multiplied by
100. y head One-half as wide as it is
long would have III index of 90; one
three fOurths as wide as long would
have an index of IS; one as wide as it
was long would have an index of 100.
There is no race whose head is normally
so wide as to have an index of 100 or SO
narrow as to have one Of 90. The higher
the index, of course, the broader and
SOundcr the head; the lower the index,
! the longer and narrower the head. Ger
mans generally are notably round head
ed. TOpinard gives for some people of
Lorraine the index of So g. The average
| index of 100 Pennsylvania Germans is
| Sl.9, which is notably less and mar
rover The heads of our northern and
eastern Indians are still longer and mar
rover. We cannot at present make a
tt,nr ,nt
we have already said may provo crro-
neous when we learn the actual Palati-
nate type. We assume now that the
| Palatinatc Germans were of medium
| stature, light haired blue or light eyed,
round headed, with finger reach OF
1.O43. We find that the Pennsylvania
| German children are dark in hair and
eyes, that the men are probably of in,
creased stature, that heads appear to be
| lengthening, that arm reach appears tc
be increasing. In all these respects the
| Pennsylvania German varies from the
assumed Palatinatc type and i'll the di-
rcctiOn of the Indian If our assumption
/ proves valid, we may claim that Oul
evidence shows change, which, if con
tinucd may form an Indian type from
! the German.
All this, it must be noted, is abso-
. lutcly distinct from any of the reason:
for discussing the tendency Of Americans
to revert to original types from the in
filtration of the red Indian blood itsel
i'll the veins of the white race. From the
days of the old French and Indian war!
tireside tales Of New England intermix
ture of that sort have been common
enough A recent novel has expressed
the country knowledge in New England
that there is an occasional streak
from ancestry that approached New
England from the west as well as tha
which approached it from the east across
the Atlantic. In the western states ant
territories the great numbers Of hal
breeds whose descendants find their wa,
into the life of cities brings to bear
curious and unreckoned force in the de
velopment of the fiber and sinew of th'
race in North America Boston Tran
script.
Salt a Luxury In Africa