The Palatka daily news. (Palatka, Fla.) 1884-1888, 1886-10-06
SOME STRANGE HANDS.
There Is "A Great Deal of Character in
Them IL We Only Knew 1t.

There Is a Great Deal of Character in
Them IL We Only Knew 1t.
Hands reveal habits, occupations, trades.
a crop of them rises at the thought, like the
show thrust up from crowd in honor of
candidate after an election speech There IL
the carpenters, with the broad thumb, and
those of the fraternity of -four, ingrained,
mealy and white; the musicians, with the
powerful wrist and the fingers delicate, sensi-
tive and agile to the last degree; the hand of
the seamstress, with an honorable little bit of
nutmeg CRATER on the forefinger that works
so hard; of the scientific man, who lectures
to explain mysteries 10 lower mortals, and
whose exactitude of touch Is the image of his
mental precision, while the nervous stretch of
his fingers corresponds with his tension of
mind
The sleight-of-hand professor is man of
long fingers. \ conjurer with slow and
chubby hand would betray the awful secrets
of the plum pudding that is taken from the
depths of your best hat.
But besides character and trade, the hands
tells the age Soft and round, the baby's
pair of puff balls, with their fat wrists deeply
ringed, appear as if they never can do any
thing in this world Yet the girls hand will
become a treasure and the boys hand viii
battle with life and with his fellow-men for
the mastery. 1t is appalling TO think OF what
those helpless little putf-balls have before
them.
After the first dimpIes they become the
inky hands of school; then the awkward hands
that don't know what To do with themselves.
Years pass, the boys hand ceases to grumble
at gloves-yea, he wears them in extrava-
CANT freshness, in comparison as his collars
grow upward, and his shoes tighten within
AN inch of his life. The result of these phe-
nomena is that ring begins to shine with
charming strangeness on another hand, that
seemed a chid's but yesterday. The young
wife tells by her hands that it is not long
since the wedding because she cannot let that
new ring alone, but twists it around for the
novelty and adnlires it with unconscious
knack of caressing it in idle moments. Her
dimples disappear as the children gather to
make a home circle; it is the hand of the
woman now with its very framework trace
able.
Dimples, bones and wrinkles mark the three
stages of life's progress With the wrinkled
stage the steadineSs of youth often remains in
resolute characters. When the Duke of Wei
lington was a very old man, he could still ill
a glass of water to the last possible drop and
hold it up steadily brimful. The helpful
hands keep their youthful activity, too, far
into the whitening age. And in nobly loving
natures there Is sort of immortality of
youth; the warmth of affection has given
more than a royal prerogative; the hand is
beautiful always to the eyes that know it
Familiarity. The later years only stamp 1t
with the impress of longer past of tender
ness, faithfulneSs and bounty. 1t is not the
'oldn hand but the dear" hand, and it never
grows older. but only more dear. He who
doubts the truth of this last mystery has not
Yet found out that hands as well as hearts
have a peculiar place in our knowledge and
love of one another.-CasSelIs Magazine.