Weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1858-1865, 1864-10-26
SHAKING HANDS.

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 one has been found to handle so
important a matter as this, and attempt to
give the public rational view of the doc
trine and discipline of shaking hands. 1t is
theme on which lave myself theorized
considerably; and | beg leave to offer
few remarks on the origin Of the practice,
and the various forms in which it is exer-
cised.
Ihave been unable to find in the ancient
writers any distinct mention OF shaking
hands. They followed the heartier prac-
tice 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
cumbrons iron mail, in which the knights
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 welcome: so
that prolonged junction was a natural
resort, to express cordiality; and, as it
would have been awkward to keep the
hands unemployed in this position, gen.
tie agitation or shaking might have been
naturally introduced.
How long the practice may have re-
manned in this incipient stage, it is impos-
sible, in the silence of history, to say nor
is there any thing in the Chronicles, in
Phillip de Confines, or the Byzantine his
torians, which enables US to trace the pro-
gress of the art into the form in which it
now exists among rs. Without, therefore,
availing myself Of the privilege of theor
lists to supply by conjecture the absence Of
history or tradition, shall pass immedi-
ately to the enumeration Of these forms.
The pump-haaadze shake is the first which
deserves notice. II is executed by taking
your friends hand and working it up
and down, through an arc of fifty de-
grees, for about minute and half. To
have its nature, force, and character, this
shake should be performed with fair,
steady motion. No attempt should be
made to give grace, and still less vivacity;
as the few, instances in which the latter
has been tried have uniformly resulted
in dislocating the shoulder OF the person
on whom it has been attempted. On the
contrary, persons who are partial to the
pump-handle shake should be at some,
pains to give an equal, equable, tranquil
movement to the operation, which should
on no account be continued after perspira-
ton on the part of your friend has COM
menced.
The pes<znzum shake may be mentioned
nezt, as being somewhat similar in char
acter; but moving, as the name indicates,
in horizontal instead Of perpendicular
direction. 1t is executed by sweeping
your hand horizontally towards your
friends, and, after the junction is effected,
rowing with it from one side to the other,
according to the pleasure of the parties.
The only caution in it's use, which needs
particularly to be given, is not to insist on
performing on plane, strictly parallel to
the horizon, when you meet viii, q person
who has been educated to the pusnp-handle
shake. It is well known that people cling
to the forms in which they have been
educated, even when the substance is
sacrificed in adhering to them.
! had two acquaintance, both -est:mable
men, one Of whom had been brought up
in the pump-handle shake, and the other
had brouyht home the pendulum from
foreign voyage. They met, joined hands,
aad atte1np pied to pat them in motion.
They were neither Of them feeble men.
One eadeagoring to pump, and the other
to paddle, their facesreddened the drops
stood on their foreheads; and it was at
last a pleasing illustration of the doctrine
of the composition Of forces to see the n,
hands slanting into an exact o!aso4 na ~ ~
which line they ever after shook Bht 1t
was plain to sec there was no cordially
ia it !; and, as is usually the case with com
nro,n:sas. boil. parties were Discontinued.