MUSSOLINI COUNTENANCE.

Waipa Post, Volume XXIV, Issue 1420, 25 October 1923, Page 3

MUSSOLINI COUNTENANCE.

A CHARACTER STUDY. ill Rome, where 1 write (says Henry Leacli, in "Chamber's Journal") I iind evidences in the newspapers, and in the tilings told to me by persons of good account and responsibility, of the high hand with which Mussolini is conducting his most grandiose enterprise. He is a strong man; he is suspected sometimes of pretending to be stronger than he is. Xow one hears murmurs that he is posing, and that he is cultivating intensely a cold, Infrd and yet somewhat dreamy expression that reminds us irresistibly of Napoleon. Rome is covered now with a new portrait of Mussolini, which one would think must be that of a man who had been practising the look of that haunting picture by .James Sant of the Corsican, depicting him in "The Last Phase." Mussolini does not mean this to be his last phase, though he says that his experiment is such a tremendous thing that if it fails he must go down at once for ever, since such an attempt cannot be made twice in one life time. The face of the dictator is one that holds the glance; it nearly does a little mesmerisin: but a year or two ago, though strong, it had a gentler look, and a smile might there be seen that is never noticed now. Mussolini neither jokes nor laughs, but he makes impressive gestures ujion many occasions. This face is cut. squarely, with straight lines and angles; rarely have I studied at close quarters a countenance so much devoid of smooth and graceful curves. The eyes are remarkably large, and set in the straightest line and wide apart. The mouth is long and also very straight. With his head bent low, looking upward a little, the lips firmly closed, but yet pouting somewhat, Mussolini looks through those eyes, the whites showing big, like a man who feels, or pretends to feel, that a tremendous destiny lies ahead of him. Sometimes I could not resist the inquiry of myself if it were absolutely natural for Mussolini to 'look like this; hut with the influence of Rome upon me, I have dismissed the imputation as one not proven and possibly unfair, for if in the least he were posing in this affair he might and would pose much in other matters. So he would be insincere—like all the rest—and, he being so, his movement must surely perish. The two great questions about him now are whether he is truly the great man he appears, with all the strength suggested by ljis looks and styles, and whether he is positively sincere. If he fails on either point, his fate is sure, and Italy, with all her trou-