The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1879-12-05
lated stroke and careful, steady mo-

ton.
"The medium-sized hand, the one in
fair proportion with the body, is the one
that will naturally do or delegate the
doing, as judgment or necessity may
designate as best.
"James Ii. Eads, who originated the
great tubular steel bridge over the Mis-
slsslppl at st. Louis, and who secured
the aid OF capitalists to build it, has very
small hands.
Henry Flad, who worked out the de-
tails of construction, and who calculated
the details of strain and tension, has
very large and very effective hands.
The former conceived the grand idea,
and, both as an engineer and as an Or
ganizer, dealt in comprehensive state
ments made up of golden generalities,
while the latter filled these general plans
full of the needed sinews and nerves of
detail.'
Coming from the general to the par
ticular, we leave the hand and arrive mt
the most important element therein, the
thumb:
sin idiots, who are guided by impulse
only, the thumbs are small and often
withered or defOrmed, and are usually
concealed beneath the Overclasping fin
gers. Infants and Predetermined per-
sons in closing the hand double the
fingers over the thumb. In both cases,
however, as intelligence dawns and as
there is any exhibition of will or choice,
the thumb asserts its supremacy by
doubling over the fingers When the
premonitions of an epileptic fit comes on,
the thumb becomes inert, and during the
spasm the thumb is unusually hid in the
palm, under the fingers. When the
great darkness of death settles about the
glazing eye, the fingers shut over the
thumb and bury it. One thing may al
ways be certified, the person with the
three phalanges of the thumb full and
strong, and equally developed, will be
no ordinary individual. Such one will
always be fOrcibly intelligent and effect
vie. Rarely, however, will such a one
bear a character of unmixed good or
evil. Such thumb always belongs to
one of marked power, and usually to one
who, whatever his general character,
has great physical strength, sensuOus
keenness, and dominating tendencies
great temptations, clear and decided
plans, indomitable perseverance"
As to the fingers:
"ShOrt fingers appreciate and love
magnitude, grace, generalities; they see
the mass, judge of the whole, and af-
forwards perceive, examine or appre-
ciate the parts or particulars.
"LODg fingers, on the contrary, are
characterized by minutia, elegance, fin
ish; they perceive the details, UNDER
stand the parts individually, and from
them appreciate or estimate the mass or
general effect.
"Smooth fingers signify perception,
intuition and rapid determination. They
want clear statement, illustration, testi-
mOny and metaphor.
"knotted fingers tell of logic, argyll
ment, the why and wherefore, the thus
and therefore. They demand premises,
syllOgisms and deductions. The first
knot suggests orderin ideas; the second,
order in material things
"Tapering fingers show the rule of
the ideal, and love of that ideal sensu-
ously expressed.
"Stubbed fingers, the same size at
ends as ut the palms, will indicate in
good hands the superior manipulation;
in poor hands the plodder.
BY far the most important part of the
science of palmistry is in the lines with
which every hand is webbed:
"The palm of the hand is traced with
lines. These lines play an important
part in all systems of hand reading
The ancients studied the lines of the
hand long before they paid any atten-
ton to the mounts. The gypsies now
give their palmistic divinations mainly
from the lines. These lines have, like
the mounts, been dedicated to the prin-
cipal deities, and, in later days, to the
planets. These names, as well rs those
of more strictly fortune-telling char
acter, are not only Inappropriate, but
most of them are misleading. The
names adopted and used in this work
Will, it is hoped, be somewhat an index
to the real meaning and value of these
signatures of mans life, health,
impulses and peculiar mental endOw-
ments.
"Besides several well defined and
prominent lines, the palm usually pre-
sents numerous less conspicuous lines
and marks. Even a slight examination
of any pair of hands will show, as else
where stated, that the lines in one hand
are not like those in the other; care
full comparison will often prove that no
one line is exactly like its fellow-in the
other hand"
The "line of life ~ is the broad, well
marked line beginning between the
thumb and the index finger, and rum
ming around what is called the ball of
the thumb. This line is the most i'm
pOrtant one on the hand, and the man.
ner of ascertaining the exact ages of
different parts of the line is thus told:
Take a pair of compasses, set the
fixed point on the middle of the root of
the index finger as a center, extend the
movable point to the middle of the root
of the third finger. Draw the arc of a
circle and mark this distance off on the
vital line. That part of the line between
the east edge of the hand and the point
thus marked will represent the first ten
years of the life. Next, extend the
movable point to the division between
the third and fourth finger, and this dis
lance marked off on the vital line will
denote the twentieth year of life, and
hence The space between the first and