The Palatka daily news. (Palatka, Fla.) 1884-1888, 1885-10-01
CHARACTER IN WRITING.
Contradiction of the Theory That PEN
manship Is the Key to Traits of ,gsld.
III. Van Santvoord in Tn

III Van Santvoord in The Currentl
One who studies the peculiaritie5 of hand
writing will readily dissent from the theory
that character is revealed in a mans hand
In the scrawl of the average penman the
character of the writer is hopelessly lis
guised as the identity of the man in the
iron mask. When are we to hear tie last
of the quackery of the chiromancist, who
make the human hand the oracle of their
CagliOstrian wisdom, ami mans hand
writing the text of his moral character and
key to- his peculiar bent of minIz Des-
barolles is perhaps the highest living au-
thority on this branch of human folly He
succeeds III making his books 50 readable
that there is some excuse for examining his
data.
Amid the mass of rubbish with which
Desbarolles' "Mysteries Of the Hand" /
padded out the author exposes his singular
weakness and faulty in the Judgment of
which he relieves himself concerning Bis
marck's traits of mind AMI character, from
studying a wretchcd fac-simile OF one of the
chancellor's letters. Al ok at the down
ward slope of the letters" lie says; 1T
means misery ami ruin-eI-e why did Ma
poleon slope down the paper when he was
down in luck? He is confident that there
is no cunning in Bismarck, from the way
in which be forms the tail end of his letters;
still, the winding, serpentine lines show that
he Is a diISomatilt'
That men of undOubtel quality have
fairly convinced themselves of tho signifi-
cant meaning conveyed in scrap of hand
writing when adduced in support of some
secret trait of character, no rea -onable be
ing denies. The hackneyed sayino Give.
1alleyrand a line OF mans han WRITING
and he will engage to ruin him, Is clearly
an extravant assertion; ami vet Ia IIyrand
did not believe it possible for a man to dis
gulse his character i'll the strokes of his pen.
Chesterfield thought 1T possible for an or
binary penman to counterfeit almost any
style of handwriting, and that the quality
of a mans penmanship did not tcuch upon
the question of character at all Here we
have two extreme views siarel by men Of
quick instincts each OF whom wa, con-id-
cred well versed in the deviou, ways OF
mankind
Between the two VS., howe ser, there
may be some medal grounI aui what the
elder Disraeli said on this head over fifty
years ago will stanl repeating "Our hand
writings" he Observes "aro a mpnotouous
as our characters lii the pre-. emit habits of
society. The true phyaioSnomy Of hand
writing will be lost among TIE rising gem
Grafton" Take the autograph, # half
dozen of our merchants, au hOr;, soldiers
and bankers. What fact can ie known
after most searching analy j. that "A writ
ing-master with an eye To the utility Of his
art, woulI not detect in "A twinklln.f 1t
might be said that A. i nervous AMI excita-
Bile; B. careless and Indifferent; c. paiaS-
taking and vigilant. But are thes,, con iect-
ureS likely to be borne out by fact:
In deciphering female hand writing Il
chirOmancer, or Love!ace,- is apt to say
with the cau5tic wit of Farquhar: Il have
your letter, madame, AMI all that | un Ter
stand by it is that your hanI is - great a
riddle as your face; AMI It's H. difficult t
find out your sense in your characters a to
know your beauty in your mask"