Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1885-02-02
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The Weapon Of Women.

!
The Weapon Of Women.
THE LANGUAGE OF THE POCKET-HANDKER-
CHIEF-HOw THE FAIR SEX HAVE
MADE USE OF IT IN THE CONQUEST OF
HEARTS AND IN STATE-CRAFT.
| "Would you like to know the language
of the pocket handkerchief" SAID soci-
ETY. young lady to Herald reporter. lit
is not difficult language, and is extreme
ly interesting. Look, if you wind your
handkerchief around your fore finger, it
indicates that you are engaged; If around
the third finger. that you are married; if
you drop it. it shows that you are willing
to form an acquaintance. Drawing it
it across the lips signifies, i wish to know
vou;' across the cheek, Il love you; >
across the forehead. We are watched;'
across the eyes, Il am sorry Twirling
it in both hands means Indifference /; in the
left hand that MY affections are disposed
of elsewhere Thrown over the shoulder
means Follow me;' held by opposite
corners, wait Tor me- Resting it against
the right cheek is 'Yes;' against the left
cheek, Mo- and when you put it in your
pocket it means Goodbye There's a
vocabulary sufficient for every purpose.
do not believe Spanish lady can use a
fan more speakingly than an American
girl can use her handkerchief, when she
has mind to. Its great fun tell you"
Useful as it thus seems to be to young
ladies. and as everybody knows it TO be
generally and particularly, it is an article
of the toilet. or OF dress-whatever it may
be called-that is not of very ancient orr
gin. The ancients did not have it at all.
though what substitute they used to wipe
their tears away is not mentioned. Per-
haps an old corner of their togas. The
| Chinese dispense with it also, carrying
instead bundle of tissue paper like the
leaves we wrap our cigarettes in. The
| Celestials have no noses to speak of, how
ever. and perhaps tissue paper suits them
quite as well AS cambria or linen. The
Turks have it,but they seem to use it
mainly to select tavorite with. ITO
throw the handkerchief is phrase we
have derived from them. Among the
French it was not until the time of the
first empire that the mouchoir could be
as much as named to ears polite, and it
was beyond the daring of an actor or
actress to exhibit one on the stage. The
exhibition of any objectionable gar
ment would have been tolerated just as
soon. But the Empress Josephine unh APP
PLY had bad teeth. and to conceal them
carried small handkerchief bordered
with costly lace, which she was constant
ly raising to her lips. This set the fashion,
of course, and the handkerchief has since
maintained an important position in the
French lady's toilet.
In England the handkerchief made its
appearance not much earlier than the 10th
century, but it has since filed large
space in history and romance. Anne
Boleyn, while watching a tournament,
dropped her handkerchief at the feet of
Henry Norris. He picked it up, presumpt
ously wiped his face with it, and returned
it to the queen on the point of his lance.
This reused the king to such fury of
jealousy that he ordered the arrest of the
queen and Norris. They both suffered
on the scaffold.
Among oriental nations, where they
'throw the handkerchief" the presenta-
ton of a handkerchief is token of love,
and it shows how perfectly SHAKESPEARE
understood the customs of all lands when
he made Othello's jealousy turn on this
point That was wonderful handker-
chief he gave to Desdemona as token of
love and "a test of TRUTH
There is magic in the web of it,
| A sibyl that had numbered in the world
The sun to course tive hundred compasses,
In her prophetic fury sew'd the work;
The worms were haowedth did breed the silk,
And it was died in mummy, which the skillful con.
| served of maidens' hearts.
Poor Desdemona kissed it and talked to
it, but it finally wrought her ruin.
The poets and romancers have all made
good use of the handkerchief, and in the
tales of fairyland the beneficent god
mother gives one, endowed with all the
magic virtues, to her favorites, which
wins for them the choicest of lovers or
brings timely succor in the hour of danger
What juvenile heart has rot beaten with
anxious expectation, when sister Anne
waves her handkerchief as a signal from
Blue Boards towerp And when the re-
lief comes, and wicked Blue Beard meets
with his Just deserts, we are sure that the
handkerchief has played an important
part in bringing on that desirable end.
The lover eagerly seeks possession of
his lady loves handkerchief
Ienvy not the joy the pilgrim feels
After long travel to some distant shrine,
When at the relic OF his saint he kneels,
For Delia's pocketbandkerchief is NINE
Graceless Dick Steel writes to his Prue :
.'You must give me either fan. a mask
or a glove you have worn. or | can not live :;
otherwise you must expect III kiss your
nand or steal your handkerchief.
In Henrietta Temple" Lord Beacons-
field plunges his hero into spasms of de-
light because he obtains possession of
Henriettas handkerchief. "He presses
the memorial to his lips and mprints upon
it thousand kisses.' Rather drv oscula-
ton, as anybody will admit except a low
err.
Sad mementoes, also. they are some
times, and many blood-stained hand
kerchief has come from the battlefield to
loving wife or sad-eyed maiden, truly
telling of some sad life destroyed.
A dropped handkerchief is often the ST.
lent signal for an impending doom for the
hangman's last act, or for the duelsts to
fire.
Then there are handkerchefs and hand
kerchefs. There is a thousand-dollar
dainty that Miss Astor held at her recent
wedding, and there is the shilling cot
ton in many colors which Dinah used not
quite so gracefully, but to no purpose,
and between these extremes vast variety