Semi-weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1853-18??, 1864-10-21
SHAKING HANDS.

1lerG are lew t:iingS OF more common
occurrence than shaking hands; and yet |
do not recollect that there has been much
speculation upon the subject. [ confess,
when | consider TO what unimportant and
futile concerns the attention OF writers and
readers has been directed, am surprised
that no ole has been found to handle so
important matter as this, and attemptto
give the public rational view of the doc.
tsine and discipline of shaking hands. 1t is
theme on which have myself theorized
considerably; and beg leave to offer
few remarks on the origin Of the practice,
and the various forms IL which it is eXer-
csed.
have been unable to find in the ancient
writers any distinct mention OF shaking
hands. They followed the heartier prac-
tee of hugging or embracing, which has
not wholly disappeared among grown per-
sons in Europe, and children in our own
country, and has unquestiOnably the ad-
vantage on the score of cordially. When
the ancients trusted the business of salu-
tation to the hands alone, they joined but
did not shake them.
am inclined to think that the practice
grew up in the ages of chivalry, when the
nun IlI1tlI, III "IlISh eliO
were cased, prevented their embracing;
and when, with fingers clothed in steel,
the simple touch of joining of the hands
would have been but cold wolcUnIe: so
tnat prolonged junction was natural
resort, to express cordiality; and, as it
would have been awkward to keep the
lands unemployed in this position, gem
tie agitation or shaking might have been
naturally introduced.
How long the practice may have re-
manned in this incipent stage, it is impos-
aible, in the silence Of history, TO say ; nor
IS there any thing in the Chronicles, in
Phillip de Confines, or the Byzantine his
terians, which enables rs to trace the pro-
gres5 of the art into the form in which 1t
now exists among us. Without, therefore,
availing myself Of the privilege of thcor-
ists to supply by conjecture the absence of
history or tradition, | shall pass immedi-
ltelv to the enumeration of these forms.
The pump-handie shake is the first which
deserves notice. It is executed by taking
your friends hand and working it mp
and down, through an arc of fifty de-
.,rees, for about a minute and Il half. To
lave its nature, force, and character, this
,hake should be performed with fair,
steady motion. No attempt should he
made TO give grace, and still less vivacity;
us the few instances in which the latter
las been tried have uniformly resulted
in dislocatng the shoulder OF the person
on whom it has been attempted. On the
contrary, persons who are partial to the
pump-hande shake should be at some
pains to give an equal, equable, tranquil
movement to the operation, which should
On no account be continued after persPlra-
cion on the part Of your friend has COM
menced.
The gsnd4zum shake may be m 9Gsa 1M9 Cd
in horizontal instead of perpendicular
direction. 1t is executed by sweeping
yonr hand horizontally towards your
friends, and, after the junction is effected,
rowing with it from one side to the other,
according to tic pleasure Of the parties.
The only caution in its use, which needs
particularly to be given, is not to insist on
performing on plane, strictly parallel to
the horizon, when yen meet with q person
who has been educated to the pump-handle
shake. 1t is well known that people cling
to the forms in which they have been
educated. even when the substance is
sacrificed in adhcling to them.
had two acquain+ances, both cstirnable
men, one CT whom had been brought mp
i'll the pump-handlo shake, and the other
had brought home the pendulum from
foreign voyage. They met, joined hands,
and attempted 70 put them in motion.
They were neither Of them feeble men.
One endeavoring to pump, and the other
to paddle, their faces redeemed the drops
stood on their foreheadS; and it was at
last pleasing illustration of the doctrine
of the composition Of forces to sec their
hands sl4nting into all exact diagonal, in
which line they ever after shook. But it
was plain TO see there was no cordially
in it; and, az is usually the case with com
promises. both pnrties were Disseminated.