Name: Jonas Hart
Occupation: Physician
Hobby: gadgets, philosophy
Appearance: Jonas has red-brown hair that is beginning to grey at the temples. He keeps it in a practical cut (none of that wig business that the rich and famous are so wild about) and has a set of admirable side-burns touched with gray. He usually dresses in simple clothes, but this is a question of modesty, not means, his moderate wealth is made apparent in their fit and quality. Although he only needs them for detailed tasks such as stitching wounds or reading, he wears his glasses most of the time, partly because it looks doctor-ly and partly because he is always looking for a chance to point out the advantages of scientific discovery.
About Dr. Hart: In his mind Jonas Hart is a man of science. He believes in proof, facts, and progress. The Old Ways? Superstition—old-fashioned explanations that can be replaced with cold hard facts. In reality Dr. Hart has many “old-fashioned” ideas that he appears to be blind to, but having come to Palisade from a small village down-river, he quickly buried these ideas beneath the shining new ideas of city folk. This was partly a means of blending in, but also a reaction to the great inequalities that became apparent when he moved to the city. The enlightened ideals of the city’s intellectuals, while often hypocritical, touted an equality among all people, something that Jonas took to heart, and one of the reasons he became a doctor. But, while good at heart, Jonas’s success placed him among the intellectual elite that he often criticized. He is constantly trying to make up for his wealth and status. Beneath this paradoxical and sometimes pompous exterior, Dr. Hart is motivated by a desire to help people, especially those worse off. He has friends in all stations, and tries to help those in need (more than once resulting in his being scammed by the person he’s trying to help).
