The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1898-11-27
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BY HENRY JAMES.

1
1t had. been my purpose to say TINS
week something about Gertrude Atner-
ton. Then occurred the reflection tiae
she was MT worth the space. Wnen
there is no better topic than sour
malformation of feminine mentality l
am ready to go out of the business Oh
writing.
Some anonymous friend sends a emp
ping from this column wherein was
stated that Roosevelt had written MN
self an ass, and that when he sought
political preferment the fact would LEAD
to his defeat. "a poor prophecy COM
ments the unknown, which is so pam
fully true that, dimly remembering the
statement, had been afraid 1t Woula
be taken from the files and hurled at
me Nevertheless, I weaken no whit on
the proposition that Roosevelt did write
himself an ass AS to the result OF
this 1 was mistaken. 1t would seem
that to SO write oneself is the way to
get into public favor. However, L
acknowledge that as a prophet Roose-
velt's election knocks me out. Not be-
ing the seventh son of a seventh son,
nor born with a caul, 1 look into the
future with difficulty.
Strange questions come to this de-
partment, questions clearly designed
for the query editor, who has grown
gray in the acquisition of wisdom and
draws a salary for dispensing it. For
instance, I am asked to give an opinion
as to phrenology. BY this term the
ordinary intelligence means craniology,
6xyC Col nd lot
by Fowler and others of his school. In
other words, they mean the science of
bumps, which is not a science at all,
but may be a fad or fraud according
to the understanding of the advocate
thereof. In a general way something
may be told of mental or even of moral
characteristics by the shape OF the
skull, yet to daily with the protuber-
ances of the dome of thought and essay
from the impression gathered to out
line the worth, the ability and the i'm
pulses of the subject is, in my estlma-
ton, as foolish and futile as to feel
mans biceps and proclaim what he has
eaten for breakfast The interior sur
face of the skull does not conform to
the exterior surface. The bump on the
outside may be but the visible indica-
ton of an osseous thickness fully as
apparent inside. Investigation is ham
pered by the necessity for an autopsy
to determine this point. There are
people with similar heads and wholly
different conceptions of life. There are
people governed by kindred impulses,
yet bearing no cranial resemblance. L
once knew a skeptic to be examined by
a disciple of Fowler, and he was told
that he was lacking in the organ OF
veneration. I'm fact" said this wise
disciple, $50 far as religious conception
goes, you are an idiot" Yet this moral
idiot was shortly after that converted
to Christianity and became one of the
most ardent Worshipers at the shrine
of orthodoxy. He developed no new
bumps. There are gentlemen who have,
theoretically, the heads of assassins,
thieves and degenerates, but who are
wholly trustworthy. There are rascals
of sanity conformation, dolts with the
brows of a Webster, savants who would
be lost under No. hat. Therefore.
my faith in craniology is absent. l re-
gard it as little better than palms.
try, because it's devotees, with
strange and interesting confidence,
think that their belief has some basis.
The same inquirer wants to know the
utility of phrenologv in the treatment
of disease. If anybody has an explana-
ton l will gladly surrender space to it.
Certainly men have been benefited by
the sudden erection of bumps even by
so crude an appliance as rolling-pin.
This however, refers to their moral
betterment.
Once more I wish to protest against
the lingual abortion, Varsity" There
is no sense to it, no excuse for it 1t
offends the senses. We might as rea-
sonably call the great scheme in which
we form petty part a varse
In a fashion so gentle as to hardly be
a rebuke, I am corrected by Editor
Robertson of the Placerville Nugget
for having expressed sympathy for
young Rosser, now on trial here for
murder. However, that expression of
sympathy had no string attached. To
feel sorry for a man is far from hold
ing him blameless. Knowing himself
possessed of a violent temper, readily
inflamed by liquor, Rosser should have
remained sober. However, the saloon
keepers who sold him stuff no better
than poison must share, morally the
burden of his guilt. 1t is notorious
that the volunteer soldiers here were
lured into dives, doped, robbed and
thrown out. In many instances they
were found wandering penniless about
the streets the night after pay day,
crazy and irresponsible, evidently not
the victims of bad whisky so much as
the victims of drugs administered along
with it. That there were so few bloody
escapades was stroke of good for
tune However, this is no plea for
| Rosser The matter is in the courts,
the proper place for its adjudication.
A queer story comes out of Chicago
that women have decided that the silk
skirt must go. They reached this mo-
mentous decision at one of the con-
crosses which to the feminine soul Is
| ever a joy. Similar congresses from
time to time decree that the corset is
| an evil the street SweeOing dress a