Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1920-11-18
READING CHARACTER
By Frederic J. HaSkin

N Der of persons you can find 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 bewildering.
The shape of your head, the bumps upon
your skull, the form of your features, the
color of your hair and eyes, the lines in the
palms Of your hand, your handwriting, are all
made the bases of systems for the reading of
your character. Likewise, you can be put
through scientific tests and examinations
which will reveal the exact grade of your in
| telllgence, your powers of memory, concen-
tration, perception, invention and many other
things. Many of these systems of dag
noslng the human personality are prac-
| ticed by quacks and charlatans ming
| led with all sorts of superstition, but
| they are also cultivated by persons of real in
| telligence an scientific attainment. They
played large part in choosing men for the
| army. The United States navy employed a
handwriting expert as well as psychologists.
And many industrial plants now use some sys-
tenn of testing the intelligence and studying
| the characters of prospective employees.
|. Theoretically, then, there is no reason why
you should be in any ignorance of your own
ntialitiej-why you should go about won
der1ng what you are good for, cherishing
any illusions about what you can do. With
all of these methods available, it should be
| as easy to have your abilities analysed as it
is to have case of measles diagnosed And
| likewise, there Is apparently 10 reason why
you should not be able to choose your friends
and employees with scientific precision in
| stead 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 Blunder Still
| And yet, somehow, we seem to go on blum
dering about ourselves and others, as of
yore And even those of us who have studied
| n ~ off n IN
| those who have not. Can it be that there is
nothing in them after all?
+ In the judgment of one. Misunderstanding
FAM who has plodded through the literature
| OF many of these methods, 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 become victim of
some one of these systems and to try to ap-
| ply it literally on all occasions. Take the
matter of head-form, for instance. You learn
| that man with a fine square brow has a
dominating intelligence. If he also has we'll
| placed eyes, good chin and high nose, he is
the ideal type, the master of civilization.
Then you meet him on the street. He is a
| traffic cop. And the same day you meet a
man who has written remarkable book, and
| you find that he has low retreating fore
head, a pug nose and several o. the stigmata
of degeneracy, and that he ought to be a
porch-climber or a pickpocket.
Does this prove that the system is no good?
Not exactly. The shape of 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 well-baianced intelli-
gence and good characteristic kind who will
handle a bad traffic jam with a fine sense of
justice and without becoming confused or
angry. And the writer with the bullet head
may indeed be an erratic. But his brain cells
are three or four times as strong and active
as those of the traffic cop. He is not such a
well-balanced machine, but he is one of much
higher horsepower and finer quality.
The Mystery of Power
The proper method perhaps, is to apply all
| of the systems for what they are worth, and
never to let any of them interfere with the
general impression. 1t is the degree of pow
er which resides in a man that determines
more than anything else his effectiveness for
human purposes, and there is no system for
accurately estimating that degree of power.
You can judge it only by intuition and eX-
perience. 1t is as invisible and vital as the
amount of electricity which courses through a
wire.
And it is just as hard for a man to estimate
his own powers except by performance, as
it is for him to estimate those of another. The
feeling Of power seems to be no guide at all.
The world is full of egotistical fools who
seem to feel genuinely sure that they were
born to high destiny, while many great men
scarcely believe in their own powers
even after they have discovered them.
1t seems we'll, then, to take account of all
these systems for Judging men without ever
letting any of them get in the light of gen
eral impression. If you are going to hire a
man, study the shape of his head to be sure.
If he has a good brow it is in his favor. A
man with a high brow is apt to make good
salesman well-formed, sensitive mouth is
a good thing to bank on, and deep cleft be-
tween the eyes shows Enthusiastically that it's
owner has done some thinking. And do not
overlook the mans handwriting, either, if
it is only a signature to a typewriter letter
There seems to, be no doubt that an ascend
ing signature shows courage and hope-a
personality which is growing and winning in
the struggle of life-and descending sigma
ture shows man discouraged or frightened
or in poor health Simple, graceful capitals
show good taste, and ornate capitals show
vulgarity, while unduly large ones are pref
ty good indication of egotism. These things
are significant and worth taking into account
but they do not prove much.
Everything Significant
In fact, everything about man is signifi
cant. There is no effect without a cause.
Every move that ma. makes, every line in
his face, every infection of his voice. the
way he combs his hair and the way he
dresses the way he sits in a chair, and the
way he walks are all tell-tale, if only we
could understand them. And these systems
for reading character which are springing up
in such number are all based on this fact
They are steps toward the founding Of
science of human personality, and if it ever
becomes a true and unified science, it will