Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 42, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 November 1892 — HEROES OF FICTION. [ARTICLE]

HEROES OF FICTION.

CaoaUy Endowed with the Perfection 01 Phjr»le»l Qualities. AH novel readers—and they an about 80 per cent of all the people who read books at all—must havt been struck with the fact that.the heroes and heroines of fiction are usually endowed with the very pen section of physical qualities, even though their morals be somewhat off color, and their actions such as should bring them directly within the purview of the criminal law. In fact, it may he said in a general way that the bigger scoundrel and villain a man is, in a novel, the more closely does he resemble the Apollo Belvedere in outward semblance; and the more sensual and deceitful and base a woman is, the more is she fashioned in the physical likeness of some me-’ diawal saint, or of some woman who seems to exude gooduess and virtue. If the novelists are right, the physiognomists and j)hrenolog ; sts an<J the great detectives“and students of penology of the world must be wrong. latter insist,-..with complete unanimity; that there is S. well-de-fined physical criminal type; thalltien and women with certain shaped heads and faces, and with certain kinds of eves and facial expressions, make up the criminal classes, and that it is just as unnatural to find crime unassociated with these physical qualities as to find grapes on thorns or figs on \hisfles. It is true that there are exceptions to this general rule, but they are not numerous enough to impinge in any degree upon the generality of the rule. Once in a while an Antinous may turn burglar or a Cornelia may be convicted of shoplifting, but the cases are so rare as to cut no marked figure in the annals of crime. If It is to be conceded that realistic fiction serves a useful purpose, that purpose should not be defeated by making vice attractive or criminals physically perfect. If the novelist desires to portray a bad man or woman, the picture should be drawn true to nature, physically as well as morally; and it is certain that there is not only a heredity in crime, which stamps itself ineffaceably upon the physique of the criminal classes, but that the environment produces that hardening of the countenance, that furtive look and that shambling, stealthy gait which detectives in all countries have learned to recognize at sight.—San Francisco Chronicle.