The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-05-03
SOMETHING ABOUT NOSES.

strsnsth.' have large noses--and that th ose who have small noses seldom If ever. rise above mediocrity? Is it true that Napoleon always selected men with large noses where strength of mind was required7
 , Very truly yours.
 Subscriber.
 Now. this friend has, sprung an in- teresting ouestion--two or three of them, in fact. There is much that might be said about the human nose. if one would study the subject carefully and exhaustiveiy. and it is one human feature that has been written about from time immemorial. Prominence of the nose" says one authority. lis to some extent an indication of ascent in the scale. of human development" That would indicate that the farther we get from the ape and the monkey the lars- CT the nose becomes. If that is true or if it should be generally true. and the development continue. s.. mankind may come to initiate the elephant fam fly in time. We are further told by the same authority that "a large nose is generally supposed to indicate strength of character, and thin. clean-cut nos trils are generally a sign of high ner- vous organization"
 There is the opinion of . standard authority. which may be taken for what 1t is worth. but we may say that it is fact that a large, or Roman, nose, is almost universally considered an indication of strength of mind and will: not in every case. perhaps. but generally. and 1t may be true that those who are best judges cf their fellows will select 6 big-nosed man for any important venture. As to whether Ma poleon always followed this rule in making his selections we are not pre- pared to say, not being so well up on Napoleonics as some others. He was a man who had his own ideas about things, and also his own way. when 1t was possible, and 1t may be that he | went in for big noses. That is a mat I
 ter for investigation. but not now.
 That the size or shape of a human nose has had something to do with im- portant events Is hardly to be disput- ed, and various writers have references to the matter. Blase Pascal. for ex- ample, almost three centuries ago. re- mark ed that "If the nose of Cleopatra had been shorter the whole face of the earth would have been. changed" That is putting 1t pretty strong, but the Queen who turned some great heads is represented as having a pretty nose and the inference is that If her nasal feature had been short. stuhby and ugly the great warriors who fought over her would not have been infatuat. ed with her and thus some of tn, most important events of ancient his, tory would not have occurred. and per. haps the face of the world at that tim, might have been changed, as Pasca said. So much. for the nose of a pretty woman. t s
 And speaking of writers on this sub teet we must not forget Solomon. that wise King of Israel, who uttered SC many good things. In one of the songi he speaks of the charms of the 'Prince's daughter" saying: "ThS nose is as the tower of Lebanon. which Iooketh toward Damascus" We think the average reader will agree that ht was giving the object of his euIogy a rather large nasal ; appendage. Wt know nothing of that special tower. but we hardly think a poet of this day would compare the nose of his adoret one to a tower of any kind. We mus bear in mind. though that Solomon wal wont to indulge in the rhapsody and hyperbole so common in the East fir his time. It may be that ''the tower oi Lebanon which looketh towards Da' mascus" was a very handsome struc turs and that Solomon was paying thu daughter of the prince q real compli ment, as he understood it. But if hel nose was really a large and handsom, one it is another argument in favor o the big-nose theory. Perhaps tha phase of 1t is also worth looking into
 Our old friend Shakespeare wal somewhat given to taking a fall out ot peoples noses. if we may So express it. He not only referred to the six and shape of that feature but had something to say about it's color, On, of the best is Jack Falstaff's taunts ana 1ibes directed at Bardolph. It Is to, long to copy here. but if our cores : pondent. or any other reader. has copy of Shakespeare let him turn to tn, First Part of King Henry ". Act s Scene 3. and read how fat old Jacl gave it to his landlords face and nose It is worth reading for its humor. This. we believe. is about all we hay to say about noses at present, thougl the subject may come up at some flu ture time-who knows?