The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1866-02-03
Ehe. Uae of the Hand


And painters and actors, what do they
not lose by their neglect of the language Of
the hand There Is a story told Of a cele-
brated portrait painter of the last century,
that he had so much business and such love
for money that he would send away his sit
ters as soon as he had painted in their faces,
leaving the drapery and the hands, which he
cIassed together, to be finished from fancy
by his assistants OF course his portraits
q e worthless; hands and faces being equally
bad, whereas, If he had taken care of the
hands, the faces, I fancy, would have taken
care Of themselves.
And you have doubtless Witnessed, my
reader, the conventional actress mimicking
grief, wringing her hands In all the stage
| imagery Of woe
/ have seen" writes o painter close
observer of fact" most Of the best actors
Of the last thirty years, and not one Of their
/ persOnifcatiOns of the passions remains on
| my mind so distinctly as that Of a poor wo-
man whose child was run over in one Of the
/ back streets of St Giles. L can recollect
/ her attitude, and the wringiug Of her hands
/ an expression Of grief / had never before
/ observed. / had thought it was a twisting
/ of the hands closed together, whereas this
| poor creature passed one hand over the back
/ of the other alternately, ending with a strong
compression Of the fingers.
] Now, was it anything like this that we
1 have seen at the theatre2 When we remem-
! Der what the Office of the hands IS in the
/ human economy, how the whole labor Of
| life is mainly done by them-every duty of
i self help or Charitable assistance--it would
almost seem as if the human body itself
were but a machine for setting a pair of
| hands to work Moreover, the hand per-
forms most important part In Illustrating
a mans. thoughts; it is fellow-laborer with
the tongue. With the hand we beg, pray,
refuse, deprecate, attest; with the hand we
invite, and with the hand we dismiss.
The way IN which man gives you his
hand to shake is pretty fair test of his dis
i position. The shy man shakes your hand
/ in a sort of fumbling way, and drops 1t alb
ruptly, being evidently IN doubt as to wheth
| er he ought to have pulled off his glove or
kept it on The rough and hearty man
| squeezes your hand to jelly Most of US,
| i suppose have met with the person who
considers that he makes himself of impor-
I lance IN the world by Offering couple of
fingers to his acquaintance; though but few,
fear, have had the presence of mind to
] give him back couple of fingers in return,
leaving him to get out Of the position as
\ bestihe might.
i Most men have undergone the official
/ shake, in which the great man Of the mo-
ment puts his hand into you5s as if it were
| a dead fish, having to 90 through the same
| ceremony with perhaps dozen or score
of others after you Passing by the rough
i brown, horny hand of toll (Which Is, per-
4 haps, as good a one as any to shake) and
merely lglaneing at its opposite; of which 1
! would say that delicate hand, white, soft,
/ and faccid with long tapering fingers, and
4 flbert-shaped nails, may be g a most excel
/ lent thing in woman" but in a man l dis
| trust it-habet fcsnuH Ia cOrHlt-beware Of
that man, whether as friend or foe-he has
never. done one days honest manly toll,
whether for his pleasure or his profit
l come to hand which lin imagination) 1
/ press to my lips, There is something 10 me
very pathetic in the hand Of an aged person.
Its history is written upon it so clearly, so
| indelibly, mapped out in wrinkle and vein.
How many hands has it clasped, which are
now dust; clasped till the loving pressure
they returned faded out with the fading
breath
| There is one such hand know, and love
IA womans It is thin and lean, and wrin-
kled the blue veins standing out upon 1t
clearly, and the knuckles prominent enough !;
| but still it isssOft and white, and lovely. 1t
is almost worn out, you see, in the service Of
a tender heart; a hand well experienced in
the little kindly Offices of a sick room a
hand that has smoothed many pillow, and
Gained many throbbing and feverish brow.
None so active and light as it in doing;
none so ready to abstain from touch or
movement, when to do SO would be ofhcious.