Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 23, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 June 1893 — DISTINGUISHED BY HAIR. [ARTICLE]

DISTINGUISHED BY HAIR.

It* Color In Relation to the Pusults of Man. ' Dr. Deddoe tells us that there is a direct relation between men’s pursuits and the color of their hair. An unusual proportion of men with dark, straight hair enter the ministry; red-whiskered men are apt to be given to sporting and horseflesh, while the tall, vigorous blonde men, lineal descendants of the Vikings, still contribute a large contingent to our travellers and emigrants. The plumage of canaries can be considerably altered toward red or orange by feeding them on a stimulating diet of red pepper, and though this may fail for humankind in general, something might be done toward increasing the pigment in the hair and give hope to many a melancholy owner of gray locks. Suppose, for a moment, that a protective color, like that which obtains in the fields, woods and hedgerows, ruled in the world of men, what an amazing change would ensue in the outward appearance of affairs. If a rogue could but at will assume the perfect guise of an honest man, and the gilded wasps of society appear as mason or honey bees, or were saints and sinners alike compelled to wear their own unmistakable livery, what a changed world would this of ours be!

If men, like canaries or caterpillars, could but change their complexion by change of diet, mode of life or pursuit, then we might indeed imagine an Alderman, after years of calipash and calipee, assume the hue and shape of a turtle. Scrooge, the miser, after a life of secret hoarding, would turn as yellow as his guineas. Mr. Carcass, the butcher, would become as rubicund as the beef on his stall, instead of appearing as a trim, dapper paleface in a frock coat, and Ferret, the poisoner, as black as the black arts on which he thrives. But outside the limits of a nightmare dream no such world is possible. We have to be content with a medley of far more sober realities, where, though “white spiders” mostly come to grief, the confidence trick still flourishes, and “men are mostly fools.” “It is an age,” says a profound thinker, “of weak convictions, paralyzed intellects and growinglaxity of opinion." There is an intense struggle for bare existence ever going on, out the fittest do not always survive. There are many wise men, but of many wise men will it never be said This fellow’s wise enough to play the fool And to do that well demands high wit; while the foolish one, in cap and bells, apes wisdom, and, save in his own country, is not without honor. —[Nineteenth Century.