Rensselaer Republican, Volume 16, Number 46, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 July 1884 — Faces Not Indicative of Occupation. [ARTICLE]

Faces Not Indicative of Occupation.

Experience and observation convince me that judgments based on physiognomy, especially, are quite as apt to be wrong as right. I shall never forget an illustration that is in my own eixperience. I used to meet on the Fulton ferry-boat two or three times a week a tall, handsome man in a glazed cap, pea-jacket, and generally rough attire. His face was weather-beaten; he never entered the cabin, and almost invariably took his post in the forward end of the boat, whence, with an apparently critical eye, he regarded the clouds, the tides, and the harbor aspect in general. In spite of the rough lines and a bronzed skin, he had one of the most intelligent faces, I think, I ever saw, and his profile was purely Greek. How many stories I imagined about him! In mymind’s eye I saw him as a cabinboy, a seaman, a second mate, a captain. I saw him battle with winds and defeat storms. I thought of him in shipwreck, and pictured him among the isles of the ocean. I saw him return to his home laden with the results of his manly endeavor, and congratulated him, mentally, that the sunset of his life was to be spent in a calmer atmosphere and in a true sailor’s snug harbor, I really attached myself to the old fellow, and would have resented an insult to him quickly. Imagine my intense disgust, surprise, and mortification when I learned one day that he was a steward in a second-class hotel in Brooklyn, in the interest of which he made a daily trip to Fulton and Washington Markets in New York City.—Philadelphia Times.