San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1925-09-20
Miss Lillian Drain, the Los Angeles
Artist, Who Believes That a
Woman's Back Infallibly Tells
All About Her Character.

THE experts in feminine beauty who
select the show girls who are to be
glorified in big New York reviews
say that they look first at the back of a
woman's hands. The little wrinkles there
reveal to the skilled eye the girls age al
most to the year; and also they tell many
other things about her temperament and
disposition.
Others who judge character by physical
appearances say that it is the mouth that
betrays ones real nature. And recently
there has even arisen a school of char
acter analysts who believe they can tell
all about person by examining his feet {!
But according to Miss Lillian Drain, the
Los Angeles artist, widely known as a
painter of beautiful women, it is the back
which infallibly reveals a persons inner
self, her ancestry, good or bad breeding,
temperament, mentality and the kind of
work she would do most successfully.
A woman's back is really, according to
her, the only true test of character, be-
cause it is the one feature which cannot
be disguised. A woman can have her face
lifted, her nose Strengthened and be other
wise remodeled nearer to her hearts de-
sire. But her back remains through life
just as Nature intended it to be.
Or, rather, it remains true record Of
how she has lived and what life has done
to her-a true and infallible index of
character. The reason for this is that
every little accident, no matter how slight
nor how early in life it may have occurred
is certain to leave its mark on the back.
This "mark" may be entirely impercepti-
bic to any eye but that of the trained
expert. 1t may be that one shoulder is
a fraction of an inch higher than the
other, or that one hip is just trifle larger
than the other one, or there may be Just
a slight curve to the spinal cord. None of
these may be serious, physiologically
speaking, but every single one is very i'm
portant TO the psychology of the subject.
Because the spine, as every one knows,
is the very center of the nervous system,
each of these little irregularities has its
effect in molding our natures. The spine
is really the conduit for all the nerves
that run through the base of the brain.
These branch out between the vertebrae
and control every muscular action of the
body, and they telegraph back to the brain
every perception of the senses. Natur-
ally these extremely sensitive little nerves
are greatly affected by the slightest pres
sure which the flesh or bones of the back
may exert upon them. That is why ones
mentality and his character is controlled
to a large extent by the structure of the
back, and why his traits are clearly re-
vealed to the expert by the curves, dim
pies and texture" of his back.
Alzp every organ in the body is con-
necteS directly with the nerves of the
spine, so its well being-which means usu-
ally its shape-affects every single organ
in the body for better or worse. And
since ones ability and temperament de-
pend TO a large extent on ones health, il
is easy to see why there is a plausible
scientific basis for this new method of
character analysis.
Roughly, backs may be classified or
grouped under several heads" says Miss
Drain. "But only very roughly indeed.
There is for example, the athletic back,
the voluptuous back, the vital back, the
sristocratic back, the tubercular back, the
back, the skinny back, the
fat back, and so on. But to place back
in one or the other Of these categories
does not necessarily reveal anything of
Importance about its posCessor's character
Istics and traits"
Usually, it has been found, that the full.
rounded back, which slopes symmetrically