Helena weekly herald. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1867-1900, 1883-04-26
DEVOTEES TO PALMISTRY.
The Latest Fashionable Freak in the
Feminine World.
Cincinnati Enquirer.l


People returning from the more fashiona-
BILE watering places, and especially people
who have had opportunity to mingle in the
more elevated walks of fashionable society
abroad this summer, are bringing back with
them the latest novelty in fashionable occu-
patton and amusement-amateur palmistry.
Ladies of high social rank have taken up the
gypsy science OF telling fortunes and charac-
ter by the hand, and have made it great
social success. Ladies who are skilled in it
become regular sibyls at evening entertain
ments, and young men who never excelled
in anything else are able to excel in this
delicate and pleasurable occupation, which
admits of taking a ladys hand and holding
it as long as desirable, and saying things
which could not possibly be said under any
other circumstances. Instances are spoken
of where young men Of tact have told ladies
fortunes so well that they have been able to
claim for good the hand they held for little
while, and in whose lines they managed to
to find their own fate defined.
So little is known about palmistry in this
country that the people are quite astonished
to find how much there is in it when the
general outlines of its principles are describ-
ed to them. 1t is not hard to tell fortunes
S,J
queen to be able to do it. Hands are divided
into three different kinds. Those with round
pointed fingers, those with square tips, and
those that are spade-shaped, with pods Of
flesh on each side of the nail The first type,
with round pointed fingers, belong to char
acters with quick perception, extra sensitive,
to very piOus people, to cOntemplative minds,
to the impulsive, and to all poets and artists
M hou itxyo q
second type, those that are square-shaped,
belongs to scientific people, to sensible, self
contained characters, and the class of profess
sional men who are neither visionary nor al
together sordid The third type, those that
are spade-shaped, with pods of flesh at the
side of the nail, indicates people whose in
terests and instincts are mostly material,
people who have genius for business and
what pertains to bodily use and comfort
Each finger, no matter what kind of hand
it is, has joint representing each of these
types The division of the finger that is
nearest the palm stands for the body, the
middle division represents mind, and the
highest joint spirit of soul If the top joint
is longer than the others it denotes charac-
Ter with too much imagination, great ideali-
", and of leaning toward the theoretical
rather than the practical When the mid
lie joint of the finger is long it promises a
logical, calculating mind-a very common
sense kind of person-and when the lowest
oint is the longest it indicates a nature that
,lings more to the luxuries than to the re-
inements of life, mind that looks for the
Utility before beauty. If they are nearly
alike, and especially if the length of the
ingers equals the length of the palm, it in
1icates a well-balanced mind. The princi-
,al lines on the hand are the lines of life,
which run around the base of the thumb
he line of the head, which begins alongside
.he line of life, crossing the middle of the
palm, and the line of the heart, which goes
rom one side of the hand to the
other at the base of the fingers. A
ong and well-defned line of the
lead promises intellectual power, and pole
inc means indecision. A good-looking line
If the heart augurs well for the owners hap
1iness. If it sends short lines toward the
inc Of the head it is taken to mean that the
owe of that person will only be given to
hose who have earned their respect. Such
ire a few of the points of the science which
his winter nearly every one in intelligent
ocial circles will be practicing and talking
lbout.