, 1886-06-08
CHARACTER IN THE HANDS.


Magazine-A Brief List.
Our oriental friends, who are of a more
slow and digniied character, disapprove
of the western custom of taking hold OF
the precious person of an acquaintance
and shaking hin for welcome. 1t may
be more digniied to bow, but if frank
ness and activity be our characteristics,
we like the trustful mystery of a hand.
clasp. 1t is an index in itself. The
formal and cold character offers straight
fingers for an instant; the dull and
apathetic let us take hold of n hand like
a lead fish; the energetic business man
meets an old friend with a grip that
brings tbs water into his eyes; the warm.
hearted takes our hand and holds it.
The nervous hand, with an aifectionate
swiftness, comes out most readily and
longingly. And is there anything more
natural to a reverent love thar the kiss
ing of the hand that has been bountiful
in love to usy See how far we have gone
among mysteriesl
Character, habits, and age are the
three things that are told by the hands.
When we draw the character of Heep,
the hypocrite-and. rs s%choolboys would
say, the "sneakn-Dickcns did not neg
lect this tell-talc; 20 what a clammy
hand he was! as CHASTITY to the touch AZ
to the sight; | rubbed mine afterward tc
warm it, and to rub his off. 1t was such
an uncomfortable hand that when | went
to my room it was still cold and wet
upon my memory" Even if it be not
that Of IIcep, the hypocritically humble
hand is apt to writhe and squeeze its
bending finger together.
The hand that little Jack IIornei
made sticky with lis own pie in his own
corner undoubtedly became with big
Jack %lIorncr, "A thick fingcrcd. puffy
index Of his partiality for pies and
pluins. Little does the swaggerer who
chinks his small change and cocks his
thumbs out of his pockets imagine that
thumbs and hands are as much his CON
domination rs the Dragging seals and the
chain that would anchor a ship.
The stingy man has n tight hand; his
fingers keep fast hold of u sixpencc, and
his palm makes a careful hollow out OF
which it cannot roll, until he is quite
sure he is obliged to part with it. The
rough and the refined hand are different
with a differe..cc like that of education
in the man. The lowest extremity of
roughness is the hand of brute violence
"A colossal paw, of iron strength, huge
with muscle, vein, and sinew. but lack
ing all scnsitiveness and ilexibility-de-
fiant in its attitudcs-a human too that
has been turned into "A weapon
There are refined hands that are Grim
ipnI also lint thnir sburnrtar = tba NOR.
hateful because no trace is made upou
outward perfection, and their beauty Is
a lie. One reads in the well-cared for,
or, rs we might say, the educated hand,
not only its own refinement, but that OF
other ge~nerations-the ancestors who
lived at leisure from bodily toll, whose
muscles were not stretched by labor,
whose fingers, little used, " mt slender
to the tips, whose very f%inger-nails re-
vcaled easy times, by their oval shape,
not pressed n worn into hard-worked
diminutive half-circlcs.
Yet one likes the strong hand-morally
strong even if 1t has never beer taskej
with physical labor; the mans hand that
is not eiIeminatc, the girls hand that Is
not a pretty waxwork, but a part Of a
helpful someone, who would be sweetly
willing to do something for somebody
else. Unless it be the weak hand OF
sickness. which is a most piteous sight,
the hand of the weak character is not
what anyone cares to clasp. More and
more in this world we want the hands
that can do something. As Carlyle says,
the first doing would be for many q
rcvclation.=Cassell's Family Magazine.