The Eaton Democrat. (Eaton, Ohio) 1875-1903, 1880-11-04
The Pocket Handkerchief.

We may forget ourpurse, our penknife,
and many other things, says the London
Halter, without experiencing any great
inconvenience, and even without its being
known at times, but to lose or mislay the
handkerchief may be followed by very
grave consequences, as we all know.
Moreover, we make use of this article in
many other different ways. All who
make use of spectacles do not remove
them from their nosein order to put them
very carefully into the case without using
the handkerchief, and they use it again
before putting them on, wiping the
glasses with great care. The majority of
people pay by far too little attention to
an object so Indispensable. Many put
it into the same pocket with their keys,
their purse, their snuff-box, without
troubling themselves concerning the
many strange substances with which its
tissue will not fail to come in contact in
SO miscellaneous company, and which
might sully the purity which the hand
kerchief ought to possess. Does one go
to pay visit? Before presenting them
selves to the person they wish to thank
or solicit, some have been known to dust
their boots with the handkerchief.
Does the careful wife see some grains of
dust left on her ornaments? She makes
them disappear with her handkerchief
Boys in the school-room clean their states
with them in the playground the hand
kerchief is the necessary attendant of a
multitude of games. With this they
wipe off the dirt; they strike off the dust,
It is used to stop the blood that flows
from wounds-always very numerous In
the age of leap-frog and prisoners base;
the age also of communism in handker-
chiefs With wounds come tears, and
the handkerchief, full of dust, spotted
with dirt, with the blood of bodies known
or unknown, serves again for wiping the
eyes, the nose, or the cheeks furrowed
with tears. We do not wish, and we can
not tell here ali the strange uses that
people make of the pocket handkerchief.
And then what signals have been con-
veyed by it! How many sad farewells,
how many cheerful congratulations The
very method of waving it has language,
as the motions of the fan also have. But
no one has hitherto discoursed on the
language of the pocket handkerchief.
And how useful it often is as help to
the pocket or the handbag! How many
mushrooms, myrtle berries, strawberries,
and raspberries have been gathered into
the handkerchief in young days, and
more valuable things in later life! Then
there may be evil results traced to it-a
number of ailments of which one cannot
guess the origin; diseases of the nose and
eyes. Fortunate it is for him that incurs
nothing worse; diphtheria, for example,
which the handkerchief may heedlessly
transmit. Let us not use the handker-
chief except for its proper purpose; let
us devote it to a special place; let us
change it as often as possible, and in
spire our children with a great disgust
for another's handkerchief on account of
the disagreeable, nay, dangerous conse-
quences that may ensue. Much more
might be said about the pocket handler
chief, but enough has been limited at to
set the reader to thinking upon its i'm
portance. its uses. and its abuses.