Czolgoszs Cranial and Facial Characteristics | Page 2

of the top of the head. The very good man is always tall above his ears
and is frequently broader through the top of his head than at the top of
his ears. In faith, hope, veneration, sense of right and wrong the
murderer was fairly good, but not strong enough or weak enough to
bend him from the course in which he was impelled by other
strongly-developed faculties.
In the artistic and poetic qualities there was a notable lack, for his upper
forehead and temples were depressed below the line of the average
curvature 25 per cent, of the maximum proportionate radius calculated
on the basis of the line from the ear-hole to the eyeball, the one which
is acceptedly used by all physiognometricists. He was neither a dreamer,
a poet, a musician, a mathematician, an artist, a constructor nor a
designer, though in the last two features he was stronger than the other.
The swell in the left temple just above the little projection of the fine
short hair, indicated a plotting ability which, connected with the
cunning shown just back of the corner of the eye, enabled him to plan
so well what his caution told him was the best means to his end. In the
judgment of form, size, color, weight and distance he was just about the
average of young men of his age. In language he was remarkably
deficient. The hollow trench under the eye showed that.
We have now considered all of the faculties, but those which impelled
him to the deed and it may be well to capitulate them, inasmuch as a
dissertation on the character of Leon Czolgosz is merely an elaborated
answer to the question: "Why, and how did he and could he shoot the

man whom everyone loved and revered?"
The direct answer to this inquiry I found in the most phenomenal
combination of developed faculties which the writer has ever seen in a
sane many head. There was a ridge of developed faculties running
around the back of Leon Czolgosz's head, culminating in the love of
approbation, which explains why he did as he did.
It was the dramatic instinct which spurred Czolgosz on to the
perpetration of his deed. The love of knowing that his name would be
in the mouths of the people and that, believing as he did in the truth of
the principles of anarchy, that future generations would rise and call
him great and make him a martyr.
It must be remembered that with a very narrowed life, slender means of
education, squalid environment and little in general to lift his standard
of ideals, he must seek the ends of these dominant faculties, he must
gratify his love of approbation, his desire for great action, and while in
this state, with the full physical vigor of a young blacksmith, he learned
first of the doctrines of the Reds. It is easy to convince how his eager
mind should grasp those fierce principles and make them its own.
He had no high civic or personal ideals to restrain him; he had no
strong moral convictions to deter him, nor was his perception keen
enough for him to see that his end would be miserable and without
glory. It has been shown that he was combative, destructive and had
little love of life. Having been spurred on to murder a President, or
some other great one, there was nothing in his own mind to balk him.
Now, consider the qualities in his nature which, combined, made him
one of the greatest assassins of the world's history. They were all found
in this phenomenal ridge which runs around the back of his head: Love
of destruction, love of combat, great caution, ability to maintain
secrecy, firmness and continuity and love of approbation.
The writer does not hesitate to say that if Czolgosz's artistic nature had
been developed one half as much as his executive, he would have made
one of the greatest actors in the world's history. As it was, he was

equipped for his deed as few men could ever be, and there is nothing to
show that he committed it in absolutely cold blood, even unbuoyed by
an enthusiasm more than the selfish determination to accomplish.
His cunning was marvelous, his persistency most marked, his daring
wonderful, and his behavior after the deed and during his imprisonment
indicative of a character that is far above that of the brutal thug who
slays because his path is crossed.
That these observations should be taken as praise for Czolgosz. the
writer has anticipated, and desires to say that they are not so meant. To
the scientific observer of human nature in its infinitely varied forms
there is no such thing as bad. There is a chain of faculties,