Shut your mouth and save your life / by George Catlin.

  • George Catlin
Date:
1878
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Shut your mouth and save your life / by George Catlin. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    bringing them to a reconciliation, and finally to a shak- ing of hands; by which we had the satisfaction of knowing, beyond a doubt, that we had been the means of saving the life of one of these men ; and a short time afterwards, while alone with the Indian, I asked him if he had not felt fears of his antagonist, who appeared much his superior in size and in strength ; to which he very promptly replied—c No, not in the least; I never fear harm from a man who can’t shut his mouth, no matter how large or how strong he may be.’ I was forcibly struck with this reply, as well as with the con- viction I had got in my own mind (and no doubt from the same symptoms) that the white man would have been killed, if they had fought. That there is an unnatural and lasting contour, as well as an expression of ugliness and lack of manly firmness of character, produced in the human face by the habit I have described, every discerning member of society is able easily to decide. Natural. Changed by habit.