The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1920-11-17
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
Information Bureau
FREDERIC j. HAsKRs. Director.
washington, D. C.
READING CHARACTER.

Der OF persons you can IND In great
city like this, who will tell you all
about your abilities and possibilities,
and the number OF different. methods
by which they will do it, is bewilder-
ling.
The shape of your head, the bumps
upon your skull, the form of your fea-
| the lines in the palms of your hand,
lyour handwriting, are all made the
basis of systems for the reading of
your character. Likewise, you can be
put thru scientific tests and examina-
| lions which will reveal the exact grade
of your intelligence, your powers of
| memory, concentration, perception, in
lvention and many other things. Many
! of these systems of diagnosing the hui
man personality are practiced by
professional auacks and charlatans,
| mingled with all sorts of superstition,
but they are also cultivated by persons
of real Intelligence and scientific at
/ tainment. They played large part in
choosing men for the army. The
| United States navy employed hand
writing expert as well as psychologists.
And many industrial plants now use
| some system of testing the intelligence
and studying the characters of pros
pective employees.
Theoretically, then, there is no rea-
son why you should be in any igno-
rance of your ewn petentialities-why
| you should sc about wondering what
| you are good for. or cherishing any
] illusions about what you can do. With
all of these methods available, It
should be as easy to have your abili-
ties analysed as it Is to have case OF
measles diagnosed. And likewise, there
/ is apparently no reason why you
should not be able to choose your
| friends and employees with scientific
| precision, instead of laundering about
! It the way you do; for all of these
methods are taught, and many of them
are taught by correspondence. and
books have been written about all OF
them.
We Blundcr Still.
And yet. somehow, we seem to go
| on laundering about ourselves ana
| others as of yore. And even those of
us who have studied these systems
are not SO much better off than those
who have not Can it be that there
| is nothing in them after all?
In the Judgment of one character
reading fan, who has plodded thru
| the literature of many of these meth
DDS, and tried nightly to apply their
| teachings, there is something in each
of them, but no key to the riddle OF
| human personality in any one of them,
| or in all of them put together. There
| is nothing more terrible than to be-
| come a victim of some one of these
| systems and to try to apply it literally
( on all occasions. Take the matter
/ of head-form for instance. You learn
that a man with a fine square brow
| has dominating Intelligence. If he
| also has well placed eyes, a good chin
and high nose, he is the ideal type.
| the master of civilization. Then you
+, meet him on the street. He is a traf-
fic cop. And the same day you meet
| a man who has written a remarkable
/ book, and you find that he has a low
retreating forehead, a pug noGe and
several of the .stigmata of degen eraey,
| and that he ought to be porch-
climber or a pickpocket. 81
Does this prove that the system is
no good? Not exactly. The shape of
| a mans head and features does reveal
| a good deal about the nature of his
abilities, but it does not reveal much
about his caliber. The traffic cop
may indeed be a man of we'll balanced
| intelligence and good character-the
kind who will handle bad traffic
! jam with a fine sense OF justice ana
| without becoming confused or angry.
kAnd the writer with the bullet head
Nmay indeed be an erratic. But his
brain cells are three or four times as
strong and active as those of the traf-
| fic cop. He is not such a well-bal-
anced machine, but he is one of much
| higher horsepower and finer quality.
The Mystery of Power.
The proper msthod, perhaps, Is to
| apply all of the systems for what
| they are worth and never to let any
| of them interfere with the general i'm
| preston. 1t is the degree of power
which resides in a man that deter
mines more than anything else his eff
| fectiveness for human purposes, and
| there is no system for accurately es-
timating that degree of power. You
can judge 1t only, by Intuition and sex-
perience. 1t is as Invisible and vital
! as the amount of electricity which
courses thru a wire.
And it is just as hard for a man TO
estimate his own powers. except by
| performances, as 1t is for him to es-
| innate those of another. The feeling
of power seems to be no guide at all.
The world is full of egottstical fools
who seem to feel genuinely sure that
they were born to high destiny, while
| many great men can scarcely believe
| in their own powers even after they
| have discovered them.
| 1t seems well, then, to take account
of all these. systems. for judging men
| without ever letting any of them get
in the light of a general impression.
| If you are going to hire man, study
the shape of his head to be sure. II
he has a good brow it is in his favor.
| A man with a high brow Is apt to
have memory and taste for detail, and
one with low, square brow is more
apt to make good salesman. A WELL
! formed, sensitive mouth is a good
thing to bank on, and a deep cleft be-
| tween the eyes shows unmistaka bly,
that its owner has done some thinking.
And do not overlook the mans hand
writing, either, if it is only signature
to g. typewriter letter. There seems
| to be no doubt that an ascending sig
nature shows courage and hope-a
personality which is growing and win
ming in the struggle of life-and a de-
scending signature shows man dis
couraged or frightened or. in poor
health. Simple graceful capitals show
good taste and ornate capitals show
Eyulgarity, while unduly large ones are
la pretty good indication Of esotism
/ These things are significant and worth
taking into account. but they do not
prove much
1 Everything Significant.
In fact. everything about a man is