Burlington free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1827-1865, 1851-06-06
Squeezing Hands

brow, or holding your hand in hers, toy will,
your fingers TO your hearts content, but you
are perfectly calm aud collected, and experience
no unusual sensation, either disacreeabe or
Otherwise. Perchance a gentleman whom you
dislike or feel slightly acquainted with VEN
lures to press your hand you snatch il quickly
away, the indignant blood mounts 10 your fore
head, and with flashing eyes you wonder chow
the imperinent fellow dares to do such thing"
Rather an anliquated specimen of humanity
squeezes your hand you feel mortified for
yourself and mortified that a man of his years
should make such fool Of himself, that he
should think you can really like such nonsense.
and above all that you can like him you are
vexed at what he has done, and are determined
That an opportunity shall never be offered him
oil doing it again.
You place your hand confidently in that Of
your lover, you are not excited of confused,
you have ceased bIushing continually in his
presence, you experience a feeling of quiet
happiness, "a little heaven upon earth sort of
'eellng," you are perfectly contentsd with
everything in this terrestrial world, especially
your lover and yourself; and yet wthal it is
foolish feeling as you sit with his arms twined
around you-that manly arm which is to SUR
port you through life; a soft, rosy, happy tin,
suiiuses your face as your hand is ,asped in
ms; ah, 1t is blissfn, foolish feeling.
But let some one whom you like very much
not an accepted lover, but one who NAV per
haps, be one, one of these days, gently enclose
your lland IN his own; what a strange, wild,
joyful, painful feeling thrills through YOU the
hot blood leaps, dancing, tumbling. through
your veins, rushes to your finger ends your
heart goes bump, bump. surely you think, he
must hear it throbbing for the life of YOU. you
cannot speak. After letting your hand remain
IN hs Just long enough to show you are not Of
tended. you gently withdraw it :; but perchance
IL is taken back again, after a faint don't do
So, Which is answered with a still closer pres.
sure, with downcast eyes and blushing cheek.
you let the little hand, this first bright earnest
OF thIngs to come, thrilling and burning with
ms new ecsatlc emotion, remain all trembling
IN It's resting pace.-IIomc journal.
Perhaps tie writer of the above. who seem to
be person of somewhat varied experience in
the matters whereof she so feelingly discourses,
thinks that all these "tender, foolish, bissful.
thrilling, burning. ecstatic emotions" are con-
fined to her sex If so she abors unde spbt
mistake. Men, especially before the cares of
this world press too heavily upon them, get
their " fee lins stirred" quite as often as women.
and it may be added, quite as foolishly too. or
course it is not pretended that erery time man
squeezes lady's hand, he is silly enough to
get very much excited. "The subject, the
place, and the OCCASION make all the difference
Imaginable. But there are times when ,he
sernest heart melts at the soft squeeze Of
femenine fingers, and feels bad The culmina-
ting point however, with one of the roucaer
sex, in this business of squeezing hands, is not
at the moment OF contact. The "tsn,alizin'
feelin" in its highest intensity occurs Ius,
previous After man gets his hand in he
don't feel so. He not unfrequen,y thinks ,ha,
it is no great shakes" after all. But Just be-
fore, when he is making up his mind TO do the
rash deed,-when he sees the ll,tle dimpled
hands reposing idly half open before him as
much as to say we are ready to receive COM
pany, and his own Stitching palm" ac es to paw
them visit, then it is that he feels ike fool.
and IN most cases is one. As TO the "lttle
heaven upon earth sort of feeling" alluded to
as occurring when lovers are " hugging" one
another, we have nuthin" 10 say. Never
having placed ourselves in such question.
able shape we are entirely incompetent to tell
what mans sensation are, under those cir.
cums'anccs. 1t is natural to suppose, however,
that as, in the former case, they depended in a
great measure upon the hand, in this case they
would depend on the armfM. But as we in
duse faint hope IF being better informed on
this subject hereafter, for the present we for
bear further comment.