1857.] A Plea for Red Heads. 233 A PLEA FOR RED HEADS. We do not intend to write about woodpeckers. It were perhaps well if some Republican, who has the time and proper disposition, would put in a plea in behalf of those true-colored, white, red and blue Americans. Why was not this made the emblem of our national flag? But we are more personally concerned with the subject in hand in another form. Some time ago, there appeared in the Guardian a short paragraph taken from the Phrenological Journal on "Red Hair," in which occurs the following sentence. "We have never seen or heard of a red-headed minister, or, rather of a minister possessed of a pure sanguine temperament." Then follows the remark that it is not certain whether the Journal is correct or not, but that some years ago a minister was rejected by a certain parish in Scotland because his hair was red. The Presbytery found the objection insuperable. The Editor of the Guardian certainly knows one red-headed minister. And in our own mind we now hold at least three others who are in the same sacred office, one of whom is a very worthy D. D., whose hair is real, genuine red, and whose temperament is almost exclusively sanguine. Of others named to us, of the same sort, of course we cannot speak with the same certainty. This is, however, itself, enough to set aside the force of the ill-natured remark, One reason no doubt why there are not many red-headed ministers, is found in the very natural fact that the proportion of red-headed people is rather small in comparison with the sum total of all other colors. Then, too, there may be much in the fact that the sanguine temperament of which red-hair is an indication, may naturally seek exercise for its activities in some other calling than the ministry. The department of law and active business may be in many cases a more congenial sphere. Some of the most successful politicians and public speakers, and partizan leaders show the sanguine temperament predominant, and many of them had red hair. Aside from many in our times, such was Jefferson, the great father of American Democracy, David, the Royal minstrel, and sweet-singer of Israel, as we learn from the description given of him in the Bible, (1 Sam. xvi: 12,) was of this temperament; and his life in many instances confirms this statement. He has all its warmth, zeal and impulse. His failings also before the Lord are doubtless in great measure to be accounted for in the same way--that is, tracing them to the influence of this temperament upon his life. From what has already been said, and from the examples given, it may be inferred that there is nothing in the sanguine temperament, and especially nothing in the fact of a person having red hair, that prevents or excuses any one from manifesting a religious life-especially such as is required in the ministry. We make this remark with reference to the common notion, which is only fostered by such paragraphs as that extracted from the Phrenological Journal, that there is something in the nature of the case which prevents red haired people from being as good as others. Under such public sentiment many who have this mark upon them, are looked upon by others and so learn to look upon themselves, as beyond the reach of grace, and thus proper candidates for all ill favor and sin-such sentiments prevailing, no wonder if the natural consequences were just such fruits as are anticipated. Novel writers, whenever they want to picture a mean, low, cunning, abandoned, ill-favored character, generally in their charity give him an abundance of red hair. If they can make it fiery red, and bristling, all the better for their purpose. Just as if deep feeling, passionate emotion and impulsive zeal were always vicious. The tendency of such notions prevailing, has been to make the subjects of this character believe that there is no hope for them ever to rise above the misery of their red-headed fate. How disastrous this becomes is at once apparent. To counteract all the evil that may follow from such sentiment in the ascendency, it is necessary that red-headed people be treated as other moral agents. That they have a mark upon them worse than that of Cain, which makes them unredeemable, is by no means a fated truth. One thing we think is plain. It is no sin per se, to have been born with a red head. If it be a disgrace, as many seem to think, the fault certainly is not with the red heads themselves, but rather it must be charged upon the decree of God's providence As well might they be derided, sneered at and mocked, because they cannot add one cubit to their stature or turn one hair white or black. Having red hair is then certainly not the fault of those upon whom the Creator has put this work. And yet persons who allow themselves with complacency to ridicule red-headed people would not consider it any special work or evidence of wit and piety, to poke fun at the born cripple, or blind or unfortunate dwarf. Red headed women are the especial object of the satirical and splenetic remarks of those who imagine themselves more favored in having black heads, or brown heads or flax heads, and even grey heads. If they can run a rig "on red haired girls" by sagely proposing to make lamp posts of them, and thus light up the city without the expense of gas, they allow the smart thing to cover their want of common politeness, as well as their want of respect for God's creatures, and their implied censure of His wisdom in doing as it seemeth Him good, since He has made them such. So, too, prejudice against hair of this color can be fostered, and the risibilities wonderfully tickled and excited by picturing a red-haired woman with a broom-stick, administering summary vengeance upon some object of her excited wrath. The same high (?) order of wit could probably turn the shaft of ridicule with equal force against any other class of persons. For all this there are those who will show their smartness at the expense of their generosity and better sense. Any slur on nature, like the Indians gun, "costs more than it comes to." In point of fact we have known red-headed women who were models of their sex. One of the prettiest we ever had the pleasure to look upon had red hair. And one of the best women and truest heroines we ever knew, has a sanguine temperament and very red hair. The red-headed ministers we know are certainly of full average talent, piety and usefulness; and Israel's red-haired monarch was a man after God's own heart. For honesty, talent, activity and the generous attributes of humanity, red heads, in proportion to their number, will compare well with any or all other colors. What crime of darkest die committed by a fiery, bristling red-head, 1857.] A Plea for Red Heads. 235 but finds itself eclipsed and multiplied by heads of black, or brown, or doubtful color? What dark, mean, low, vulgar mode of life by an unfortunate red-head, but is equalled or surpassed in degradation and vice by all other colors, even to the jettiest black? Other villains, under cover of the red, sometimes do their vile deeds. It is not uncommon for them to wear a red wig or false red whiskers. With all this and common prejudice to boot, we do not remember to have seen one red-headed prisoner in our visits to the county jail where we saw at different times some hundreds of prisoners. And in the House of Refuge, among two hundred boys confined for various grades of offence, we looked in vain for one red-head. Two had yellowish hair, many had fair hair—but perhaps the large majority were black heads. Among the girls in the female department of the same institution, the same scarcity of red hair prevails. One girl has what might be called auburn hair, and she plays the melodeon and leads the singing in the chapel services. It was our lot to be born with red hair. Without our consent or approbation this mark, this temperament and this life were fixed upon us. For this we are not accountable. For what we have made of it since we had the choice of free action, we must be considered as responsible. Whether it was fortunate or unfortunate, we could not for many years determine. God made it red, and red we have left it, though very often we were made to feel that somehow it was a circumstance of which we ought to be ashamed. We were cursed for "a little red headed rascal" from our earliest recollection, by grand-parents, uncles, cousins et id genus omne, down to the more favored boys on the street, till we often wondered whether we were not such a rascal, or at least whether we ought or might not as well be one. Some who prophesied as much, may be disappointed now, that we are not now, thanks to grace, a big rascal, but if we are not, it is not owing to any word of encouragement from them to cheer us in our red-headed misfortune of worse than orphanage. Oh, we know that red headed people can feel and do most keenly feel the taunts that are often thoughtlessly or in malice heaped upon them for what they are not to blame! What generous soul will then wantonly wound that feeling! Our plea is for justice to a persecuted class, till a cause for blame is made out against them. We want no more slighty or cutting paragraphs about red heads, till it be shown that it is a sin to be one of them. Till it be proven that to be red-haired is to be vicious above all others, and that those are accountable for the crime of being thus created who now have this hated mark of predjudiced public sentiment upon them, we cannot see the force of witty taunts and jeers against this class of God's creatures. Fellow Red Heads! if such there be who read the Guardian, we are not disgraced by this special mark of Providence upon us. It is in itself no sin. There is no harm in leaving it as God has made it. We need not be ashamed of what God has made us-though we once were taught to believe so-as many doubtless still do. Only use rightly what He has given us, and we may be as fit to become His ministers, and servants in other useful departments of life, as any other color of heads. There is more truth than comfort in the fact that for every villain with red hair, there are hundreds of others with other colored hair. It will however not do to retort upon those who attempt to wound our feelings by pointing to snub noses, pug noses, squint eyes, pigeon toes, bandy legs, and other imperfections in nature. But red hair is no defect-it argues no disgrace or shame, but when it is spoken of in mockery and derision, we have a right to object. The brunnette does not like to be continually told that she has a very dark complexion, nor the petit stature that it looks dwarfish, as though these were faults of their possessors; so we red heads do not object to the fact that we have hair which was held in high favor by the ancient Greeks, but when ill-natured remarks are made against us as a class, we put in our plea till it be proven a sin or a cause for shame. THE FIELD OF THE WORLD. Sow in the morn thy seed, At eve hold not thine hand; To doubt and fear give thou no heed, Beside all waters sow; The highway furrows stock; Drop it where thorns and thistles grow; The good, the fruitful ground, O'er hill and dale, by plots, 'tis found; Thou know'st not which may thrive, Grace keeps the precious germs alive, And duly shall appear, In verdure, beauty, strength, The tender blade, the stalk, the ear, Thou canst not toil in vain; Cold, heat, and moist, and dry, Thence, when the glorious end, The angel-reape:s shall descend, And heaven cry- Harvest home.' 1857.] Nature and Power of Comets-Smiles. 237 NATURE AND POWER OF COMETS. ALTHOUGH Comets occupy an immense space in the heavens, surpassing millions of leagues, yet on account of the absence of atmosphere in those regions permitting fluids to be infinitely rarefied, the matter of these bodies is reduced to the most feeble proportions. According to Laplace, although the dimensions of the tails of comets be myriads of miles, yet they do not sensibly affect the light of stars seen through them. They are then of an extreme rarity, and their mass is probably inferior to the smallest mountains on the earth. They cannot, then, by their contact with the earth, produce any sensible effect; and it is probable that they have frequently enveloped the earth without being perceived. It is this which doubtless explains how many comets have passed in proximity to certain planets without producing the least physical influence. Delambre says that the comet of 1770, passed between Jupiter and his satellites without causing any sensible perturbation. Sir John Herschel goes still further, and says, in express terms, that the tail of a large comet, as far as any idea can be formed of it, is composed of a few pounds of matter, and, perhaps, only of a few ounces. And M. Babinet, well known in both hemispheres as one of the greatest authorities of the age in physical astronomy, has gone so far in respect to this subject as to say that the earth, in coming into collision with a comet, would be no more affected in its stability than a railway train coming in contact with a fly, SMILES But all smiles smile of love. NOTHING on earth can smile but man! Gems may flash reflected light, but what is a diamond-flash compared to an eye flash and mirth-flash? Flowers cannot smile. This is a charm which even they cannot claim. Birds cannot smile, nor any living thing. It is the prerogative of man. It is the color which love wears, and cheerfulness, and joy-these three. It is the light in the window of the face, by which the heart signifies to father, husband, or friend, that it is at home and waiting. A face that cannot smile is like a bud that cannot blossom and dries up on the stalk. Laughter is day, and sobriety is night, and a smile is the twilight that hovers gently between both, more bewitching than either. are not alike. The cheerfulness of vanity is not like the The smile of gratified pride is not like the radiance of goodness and truth. The rains of summer fall alike upon all trees and shrubs. But when the storm passess, and on every leaf hangs a drip, each gentle puff of wind brings down a pretty shower, and every drop brings with it something of the nature of the leaf or blossom on which it hung; th roadside leaf yields dust, the walnut leaf bitterness, some flowers poison, while the grape blossom, the rose and the sweet-briar lend their aroma to the twinkling drops, and send them down perfumed. And so it is with smiles, which every heart perfumes according to its nature-selfishness is acrid; pride, bitter; good-will, sweet and fragrant.-Henry Ward Beecher. |