- Christopher Columbus
Columbus was a man of commanding presence. He was large, tall, and dignified in bearing, with a ruddy complexion and piercing blue-gray eyes. By the time he was thirty his hair had become white, and fell in[Pg 4] wavy locks about his shoulders. Although his life of hardship and poverty compelled him to be plain and simple in food and dress, he always had the air of a gentleman, and his manners were pleasing and courteous. But he had a strong will, which overcame difficulties that would have overwhelmed most men. - Italian Child
Among the dark whites of Europe the Portuguese, Spanish, Italians, and Greeks are conspicuous. In speech they are kin to each other, and to the fair whites. How different they are otherwise! They are handsomer in face, more lithe and graceful in body, more quickly aroused, more changeable in purpose, than the fair whites. Their faces, their gestures, their movements, more emphatically betray their emotions. They live more in the present than the somewhat sober and sombre northern peoples.