CHAPTER XXVIII 



PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS 



PHYSICALLY Mr. Shaler was well made, lithe, and muscular. 

 The description given of him in a passport at the age of thirty- 

 two was correct. Stature five feet eleven inches, eyes gray, in- 

 clining to blue, nose aquiline, mouth medium and it may be 

 added, delicately moulded and sensitive. Face thin, complexion 

 fair. His hair, described as ' ' sandy, ' ' was unusually abundant 

 so abundant that one naturally expected it to defy the thinning 

 touch of time. He disliked very much the idea of growing bald, 

 and the only regard for his personal appearance he ever showed 

 were some precautions which he took the last year or two against 

 this disfigurement. He was of such just proportions that few re- 

 alized how tall he was. He described an experience he had when 

 he first entered the drill class at Cambridge in 1861. The drill- 

 master, it seemed, spent at least ten minutes trying to place 

 him ; beginning low down in the squad, he shifted him step by 

 step until within two of the top ; he, knowing where he belonged, 

 enjoying the joke all the while. His body broadened with years, 

 but he had never an ounce of flesh to spare. He held in great 

 dislike the accumulation of adipose tissue and the physical 

 inertness that is apt to go with it. He regarded increase in girth 

 of waist as a mark of degeneration, a sign that a man was eat- 

 ing too much and walking too little. When he saw a comrade 

 getting pursy, he took it seriously and would exhort him to 

 more exercise. He commented regretfully upon the fact that 

 only one other teacher besides himself went regularly to the 

 gymnasium. 



In youth, at least, his face failed to show what was in him ; 

 it was alert and sensitive, but did not bode the strong-willed, 

 dominant personality that time revealed. These qualities, 



