16 HUMAN PHYSIOGNOMY. dingy at the cuffs and dubious under the arms, trousers defining the spindle shanks from hip to ancle, and pinched at the instep like the wearer’s stomach, combined with greasy hats and patched boots, very sharp at the points, betoken the foreigner in New York—most probably a fiddler, or musician of some kind. If he sport a copper-headed cane, and no shirt, be sure that he is a Frenchman. The big-footed man, with stalwart shoulders and beer-barrel chest, pretentiously attired, but with somewhat poor materials, with a wild or a rollicking eye, and a nose rather out of joint, staring every woman he meets, and finding frequent favor in their eyes by dint of blarney, and good humored effrontery, is an Irish jontleman, come over in search of a place. The splay-footed man, with calculating eye and shrewd aspect, remarkable prominence of cheek-bone and general irregularity of feature, divergent legs and bony back, shabbily or showily drest, is a Scotch adventurer. The true gentleman, Irish, Scotch, or English, is not distinguishable from those of our own country. The true gentleman from the continent of Europe is only distinguishable by his foreign air. The latter flourish in our streets like the aloe, only once in a century. As in every man’s mind, according to the learned in medical jurisprudence, there is a screw more or less loose, so also of their outer forms. Walking it is which discovers the weak point. In one it is the elbows which manifest a deplorable stiffness, making the man seem manacled ; in another the knees, which never bend; in a third the knees, which are ever bent. This lounger’s “ pregnant binges” are so purely philanthropic that they are perpetually kissing each other; that other man’s have a mutual coolness ever since earliest infancy, and still keep a civil distance. Then the hands, and the arms—oh, monstrosities of awkwardness. The man who is always laughing is an idiot; the man who never laughs is a jackass. The false-toothed man is never done grinning approbation of his dentist; the false man seldom gets beyond a sneer ; the hearty laugher is indubitably honest; the horse-laugher is a vulgar bore; the quiet laugher is usually cute and intelligent; simperers invariably think themselves pretty; the man who laughs convulsedly has a touch of madness ; he who in laughing buries his eyes in fat and puckers his face into a sheaf of wrinkles, is always a merry fellow; Sardo nic laughter, like, the wreath of Harmodius, is a dagger hid beneath flowers ; .but a benevolent smile is the fleeting remem brance of man before the fell. The busy man looks without seeing—the lazy man sees with; out looking; the lounger—a meditative man—both looks auu
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTM4ODY=