The Sun.
London, England, 1863-09-15 00:00:00

Giving Two Fingers.

There are people in England to be met with
every day who have a horrid habit of giving two
fingers only when they pretend to shake hands.
They use this means to express the feeling of their
own importance, and also to convey to the person
on whom they confer this doubtful honour a proper
sense of the distance that separates them. Fine
ladies in the country not unfrequently hold out
this signal of their consequence to creatures like
curates, attorneys, younger eons, and led captains ;
and from the affable smile with which they accom-
pany the gesture it is evident that they seriously
believe that those kind of people :must be pleased
and proud to have this mark of condescension shown
them. It seems a happy mixture of amiability and
reserve. The genera) public which sees the hand
stretched out may be s apposed to admire the socia-
bility and grace. with which the great lady wel-
comes the canaille, whereas the object of the con-
descension receives a private warning that this must
not be taken to mean too much, and that he must
be as discreet and unpresunaing as before. It is as
if the horse on which Mordecai was sent round the
town had only been painted white, but the dis-
heartening secret had been revealed to him alone.
Heads of Houses, too, at the Universities, who are
like fine ladies in more ways than one, are in the
habit of intimating in this way to the younger Fel-
lows and to the Bachelors of their colleges what is
the true distance that separates the real full-blown
don from the mere budding or possible don. Many
of those, however, who have the two fingers pushed
into their hand are stung with the implication of
inferiority, and do not like this trait in the manners
of their superiors. Sometimes they even threaten
to give what they get, and to offer two fingers in
return_ But we doubt whether this is good taste,
for besides the inevitable ludicrousness of two sets
of two fingers trying to catch each other, it may be
argued that either the superior is acting within
the limits of good manners, and then the
inferior ought to grin and bear it just as he bears
a carriage and four passing his pony-chaise; or else
the superior is guilty of rudeness, and to meet rude-
ness with rudeness is undignified and un-Christian.
The proper thing is to have it understood, once for
all, whether this extension of two fingers is good
manners or not; and if it is settled that it is not,
the shame of the breach of good manners ougi2t to
fall exclusively on the person guilty of it. If a fine
lady or a don were to spit profusely while accost-
ing an inferior, there would be no occasion to notice
it. The best thing would be to look the other way,
and clear off as quickly as possible. So, if giving
two fingers is once accepted as a piece of vulgar
rudeness, there is no need to resent it. But whether
it is bad manners to give two fingers---and if so,
why--are questions which lead us into a wide field
of discussion ; for manners are but the signs of
general habits of thinking and acting, and we may
easily see that giving two fingers is not an isolated
part of English manners, whether good or bad, but
is connected with many other things that are either'
approved of in England or are passed over without
notice.--# alurday _Review.

THE LATE CASE OF FLOGGING WOMEN AT A
BROTIIEL.—It is stated that the three "gentlemen"
who assisted at this delectable amusement have been dis-
covered by a detective named, appropriately enough, Ser-
geant Birch. One is said to be the nephew of a duke, and
another of stil; higher rank; but they have fled to the Con-
tinent, and are consequently beyond the reach of the law. •
To-day's telegram is brought to us with lightning speed
by magnetic tot ce. The same power, and with the same sue-
ceas, is employed by Mr. Herring in his magnetic brushes.
Dr. llassall reports "I regard them as the most perfect
brushes hitherto made, as respects their mechanical con-
struction and their magnetical action." They are the remedy
for grey hair, neuralgia, rheumatism, ke. N.B.—Counter-
Icit4 are iniog.,„o, Offices, n, Uasinhall-street, Lod9u,