DEPRESSING 'HEAD-READING'

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 59, 11 March 1937, Page 23

DEPRESSING 'HEAD-READING'

The late Neil Munro,. novelist and poet and editor, was given, as a youth, one of the most depressing "head readings" possible. A raw ' lad just out from the Highlands, Munro visited the Glasgow Trades Hall in 1881 to hear the great Professor Coates, mesmerist and phrenologist, who had a reputation, for spotting the correct vocations for ambitious young men. He was duly invited on to the platform to have his mental attributes recorded before the eyes of a large and. enthusiastic audience. The professor pawed through Munro's boyish ■ stubble and promptly described his victim's head as "most unusual. . . . with the bumps of conceit, vanity, and self-esteem well developed, and a marked depression present in the area of calculation." In short, the head appeared to have no redeeming feature, and its owner was advised to 'follow a career where ho imagination would...be necessary. The candid professor concluded by inquiring whether his, diagnosis was right. "Absolutely right," responded Munro readily, "just as we agreed.upon."

Sixteen Japanese have been murdered by "a Brazilian labourer in,:the district of Monte Aprazivel. Wishing to avenge himself on a Japanese colonist, who had cut oft his son's hand, thereby causing. his death,., he killed him and 15' other Japanese. ":.