The Ravalli Republican. [volume] (Stevensville, Mont.) 1894-1899, 1898-11-30
THE CHIN AS AN INDEX.

When ;a face reader was asked for
his opinion Of al article, 1.-The Chin
as an Index" printed in the ST.
Louis 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 dinp]ed chin indicates CO.
quettishness, that the retreating
chin is the chin of failure and that
the otl,e, kinds ct chin which he de
scribes stand for the other traits of
character which lie associates with
them. His statements are unsup-
ported by proofs or illustrations
from life "a from pictorial art. Had
he given the names OF people, nota-
bic historical persons rather than
contemporaries having chins OF the
several vil5t1ies spoken OF. his de-
sc1iptinn ui the traits of their pos
session would have been more en-
te1tAj]i1le for in each case present
ed one ut,llld have formed his own
opinion as to tie correspondence be-
tween the feature and the mental
quality which he seeks to associate
with it. Cortes, for example, Crom-
well and Peter the Great were Ger
tainly 1nen Of the get there type,
but he would hardly say that they
had protruding chins
So also in regard to the other
kinds Of chin, from the dignitied
and the crquettish to the executive
and the humble. | would say, let
him show ne the portraits of some
OF the parties whose cllns give con-
firmation to his theory My own
study Of the pictured features of the
eminent men Of past and present
times has led ne to believe Lat a
face reader must he 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 Ii
Hung Chang is not very yielding or
helpless CT easily discouraged, yet
no one who ever saw him fuiled to
observe that he has retreatlng
chin-one which retreats almost out
OF sight, SO that not even his best
friend would speak Of it as protrud-
ing. What about that2 Again, it
will be admitted that Bismarck be-
longs to the get there type Of hu-
manity, and yet his chin falls be-
hind the frontal line and also tho
line OF the mo]ar bone. It is far
from protrusive Look at the chin
OF the pugilist, Fitzsimmons.
II could take up all Of the kinds
cf chin described in The Clinique's S
article and show you that plenty Of
the people who have any one of tho
kinds do not possess the mental or
mo1al character set down over
against it by the writer in that
periodical, who must be a very poo1
sort Of face reader.
sThere arc physiognonists who,
after studying 4 man S 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 every
body knows that they often get
things wrong, more especially when
they have not previously had any
knowledge Of the mans life OF
idiosync1asics.
II repeat that it is very hard tc
get at the characteristics Of any
ones mind by his chin, and, il
truth, it is not eusy to get 1T them
by any OF all Of the lineaments OF
his face. Many a great man has
had features which would very
surely lead the sharpest physiogno
mist to draw erroneous conclusions
from them. Who upon seeing the
face Of Thomas Carlyle, without
knowing OF his works, would eve1
have taken him to be the grea1
thinker that he Wasf
"Thcre have been plenty of heroes
whose looks were misleading, an(
lots of poets whose features coull
not be made to rhyme, and some
saints whose faces would never re
mind you OF Il cherub, and any
number Of other people between
whose facial conformation ;;ild mon
tai traits it would be impossible t(
trace the correspondence. | know
strong character who has a necl
Of no account, an anomalous mouth
inexpensive eyes, a narrow bloN
and not much of chin You coul(
not guess what kind Of a soul h
hat, by looking at him. A witty
writer once said that if Cleopatra ;!
nose had been shorter the face O.
the world might have been changed
and perhaps it might. Look at tha
featu1e in Socrates or in some O
the mummied Egyptians who Were
once lords of the Nile, or in severa
OF the English kings, OF in nearly
all the illustrious Chinese, OF il
most Of the Finnish bartls, or il
squads OF the German princes.
have seen q picture of Captain Kidd
once famous as Il pirate, and i
seemed, when carefully scanned, a