Rapides gazette. (Alexandria, La.) 1869-187?, 1873-05-31
Pretty Hands.

WHAT about hands, e1claims Mon
taigne? With them we beckon, promise,
call, dismiss, threaten, pray, deny, refuse,
interrooate. admire, court, confess, re-
pent, fear, doubt, command, initiate, en-
courage, swear, testify, accuse, condemn,
absolve, defy, despise, fiatter, applaud,
reconcile, recommend, insult, work. fight,
complain, groan, despair, astonish,
whisper. The hand is SO beautiful and
sensitively formed, it moves with so much
power, freedom, and delicacy. that it
seems to possess instinct within itself.
Whether in movement or repose its ex-
preston cannot be mistaken; its most
tranquil position indicates our natural
disposition, its fixure our actions and our
passions.
In the varied phases of life all the grace
ful and pleasing attitudes assumed by
women are characterized by the move
ment Of the hands. Many gestures OF the
fingers only have a language so true that
1t appears expressive. We know that
hand held or given has expressed great
er emotion than could have been made in
a long discourse.
The primitive quality of beauty is COM
parative smallness. A lady's hand is con-
sidered more graceful if under the usual
size. If it has soft forms and pure out
lines, fingers long, delicate, flexible,
round, and tapering towards the ends If
the dimples over the joints are marked by
faint reliefs and shadows, and the wrist
softly rounded and Joined to a moderately
long and tapering arm, 1t Is more delicate
and feminine.
Slender, nervous, white, slightly veined
with blue, with the hollow rosy and deli
cate, the nails transparent, they belong to
the patricians.
Hands are infinitely varied. Their
shape, tint, the nails, length, width,
rOundness are as different as individuals.
There are hands that seem intellectual in
their symmetry. beautiful fexibility, and
grace Of motion. Some are soft and
voluptuous, and others precise, striking,
and brilliant. The form of the hand often
expresses the capabilities of the person to
whom it belongs. The strong palms,
conical fingers, and small thumb, indicate
The square hands belong to the intellect
ual and ambitious and those who love in
fuence and rule. The small, soft, almost
fleshless hands, but rosy and with knotted
fingers, are brilliant and witty. Fingers
delicately squared at the ends, like those
of English women, love domestic life.
The small thumb and fingers, broadening
at the ends, desire activity and practical
knowledge of the world. There are
smooth and knotted fingers-to the first
belongs grace; to the second, reason.
Conical hands with pointed fingers obey
inspiration and worship the beautiful in
painting, poetry, romance, and nature.
There are soft hands more capable of ten
derness than oflove, and delicate fingers
that are formed for sensitiveness and
sympathy of touch and made to minister
to pain and grief" hard hands that know
not tenderness, but are not ignorant of
love; and trough hands that the heart
teaches and guides and softens."
Byron considered white hand almost
the only distinguishing mark of gentility,
and was proud of the delicacy and beauty
of his own pointed fingers. The many
beautiful illusions in his poems to beauti-
ful hands and arms show the homage he
paid them.-N. Y. World.