The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1897-01-28
ARE WE BECOMING INDIANSq
Increasing Resemblance in Faces 70 the
Aboriginal American Type.

| 1t is an extraordinary question in
anthropological science which has been
propounded popularity of late. The in-
tluence of environment upon the face
resident in the United States musk in
the course of four centuries prod 20
certain marked and undeniable ply
al results. 1t is not generally ackntSl-
edged by American anthropolo9lsts
that there is a tendency of reve'sion
to the type indigenous to the soil. But
foreign students of race, with more
perspective. have offered interesting
food for reflection. A writer ii the
Chicago Times-Herald, commenting on
the assertion of the French authors
that on this continent the American
white man has varied toward tpe In
dian type offers a supporting study
which is curiously fascinating pos
sibly vastly important.
First, the familiar faces of theicarit
caturists' creation are called in aswit.
nesses. The Yankee and the South'on,
large and loose-limbed of these pic
lures are types, even as the stout fulll
faced John Bull is a type found il an
other environment. Both American
| favorites of the cartoorist have high
cheek bones, and usually eXcellent
straight noses. These witnessed are
not, of course. scientifically admissible,
The faces given us by the caricature-
makers are impressions, not testimony.
Scientific, however, is the study Of
fered of the Pennsylvania German
ahappy, 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 pervasiye and be-
| quilting Irish have intermarried some
what with these old Pennsylvania set
| tiers, but in the main it is a very eX
| elusive, pure-booded Palatinate stock.
| Data have been secured relative to i
! large number of school children, and
to adult males from p to 80 years of
age, and many copies of portraits of
original settlers. 1t appears that stat
IRE increases and that other important
| CONGRATULATIONS may be made, tentative
| ly. of course. The increase of finger
reach is marked and the head measures
are important.
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
| tie head, when compared. give nu-
merical expression which is called the
cephalic index. To find it the length is
| divided into the breadth and the result
! multiplied by 100, y head Cne-half as
wide as il is long would have an index
| of 50; one three-fOurths as wide as
| long would have an index of IS; one a
| 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
| so. The higher the index. of course,
| the broader and souDder the head; -thc
| lower the index, the longer and narrow
el the head. Germans generally are
notably round-headed. Topinard gives
| for some people of Lorraine the index
| of SOB. The average index Of 100 Penn.
! sYlvania Germans is S1.9, which is not
| ably less and narrower. The heads of
! our northern and eastern Indians are
still longer and narrower. We cannot
| at present make a further comparison
with profit. What we have already
| said may prove erroneous when we
! learn the actual Palatinate type. We
! assume now that the Palatinate Ger.
mans We're of medium stature, light
! haired, blue or light eyed, round head
ed, with a finger reach of 1,043. We
| find that the Pennsylvania German
children are dark in hair and eyes; that
the men are probably of increased stat
ure; that heads appear to be length
! ening; that arm reach appears to be
Increasing. In all these respects the
Pennsylvania German varies from the
assumed Palatinate type and in the di
rection of tn" Indian. If our assump-
ton proves valid we may claim that our
evidence shows change, which, if con
| tinued, may form an Indian type from
the German"
All this, it must be noted, is absolute
ly distinct from any of the reasons for
discussing the tendency of americans
to revert to original types from the in
| filtration of the red Indian blood itself
in the veins of the white race. From
the days of the old French and Indian
wars, tireside tales of New England inter
mixture of that sort have been common
enough. a recent novel has expressed
the country knowledge in New England
that there is an occasional "strealt"
from ancestry that approac he'd New
England from the west as well as that
which approached it, frcm the east
across the Atlantic. In the western
states and territories the great num-
bers of half-5reeds whose descendants
find their way into the life of cities
brings to bear a curious and unreck-
oned force in the development of the
fiber and sinew of the race in North
America.-Bostron Transcript.
| Pitkeathly BannocI.
The proportions of butter, sugar,
-four and rice -four are the same as for
shortcake, with the addition of quar-
| 20 ,f 81.