The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1880-08-03 00:00:00

THE POCKET-HANDKERCHIEF.

We may forget our purse, our penknife, and many other
things, without experienclug any great inconvenience,
and even without its being known at times, but he lose or
mislay the handkerchief may be followed by very grave
consequences, as we all know. M reoyer, we make use of
this article in many other different ways. All who make
use of spectacles do not renters them from their nose in
order to put them very carefully Iwo the OM without
using the handkerchief, and they use it again before put-
ting them on, wiping the gismos with great ears. The
majority of people p ar by far too little attention to an obiett
a) indispensable. Many put it Into ) the same p,clust with
their keys, their purse, their snuff-box, without troubling
themselves concerning the many Waage suhstanoes with
which it.. tissue will not fail to come in contact in so
miscellaneous • company, and which might sully the
purity which the handkerchief ought to possess. Dies
one go to pay • visit! Bsfore presenting themselves to
the person they wished to thank or solicit, some have
been known to dust their boats with the handkerchief.
axe, the careful wife see some grains of dust left on her
ornamental She makes them disappear with her hand-
kerchief. Boys in the schoolroom clean their slates with
them: In the playground the handkerchief is the nece,
miry attendant of • multitude of games. With this they
wipe off the dirt; they strike off the dust. 111, used to
stop the blood that flows from woun Is—always very
numerous In the age of leapt rot and prisoners bail; the
age all) of communism in baulk !rchlefe With wounds
come tears, and the handkerchief, full of dust, spotted
with dirt, with the blood of bodies known or unknown,
serves again for wiping the eyes the nose or the cheeks
furrowed with tears We do not wish, and we cannot
tell here all the strange uses that people make of the
pockethandkerchief. And then what signals have been
conveyed by it I How many sad farewells, hay many
cheerful congratulations I Toe very method of waving it
has • language, as the motions of the fan also have. But
no one has hitherto discoursed on the language of the
pockethandkercldef. And bow useful it often is as •
help to the pocket or the band-bag I How many mush-
rooms, whortle-berriest strawberries, and raspberries have
been gathered into the handkerchief in young days, and
MOTS valuable things in latter life I Then there may be
evil results traced to it. A number of ailments, of which
one cannot guess the origin; divests, of the nose and
eye,. Fortunate it Is for him that incurs nethinc worse;
diphtheria, for example, which the handkerchief may
heedlessly transmit. Lot us not use the handkerchief
except for its proper purpose; let na devote to it a special
place; let us change it as often as possible, and inspire our
children with • great disgast fur another's handkerchief on
&tenant of the disagreeable, nay, danger-ins consequenees
that may ensue. Much more might be said about the
Pocket-hand kerco ief, but enough has been hinted at to set
my readers a-thinking upon its importance, its; uses, and
Its abusee.—Leisure flour.