Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1886-05-13
STRANGE HANDS,
They Tell Their Owners Character, and
Trade, and Age.

Trade, and Age.
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 is the carpen-
ter's, with the broad thumb. and those
of the fraternity of flour. ingrained,
mealy and white; the musicians with
the powerful wrist and the fingers deli
cate. sensitive and agile to the last de-
gree; the hand of the seamstress, with
an honorable little bit of kindergarten
on the forefinger that works so hard; of
the scientific man, who lectures to ex-
plain mysteries to lower mortals, and
of his mental precision. while the nerv-
Gus stretch of his fingers corresponds
with his tension of mind
The sleight-of-hand professor is a
man of long fingers. A conjurer with
the awful secrets of the plum-pudd ing
that is taken from the depths of your
best hat.
But besides character and trade. the
hands tell the age. Soft and round. the
wrists deeply ringed. appear as if they
never can do any thing in this world.
Yet the girls hand will become a treas
ure, and the boys hand will battle with
life and with his fellow-men for the
mastery 1t is appalling to think what
those helpless little puff-balls have be-
fore them.
oh, little hands, that, weak or strong,
Or a
Have still so long to give or ask
I; who SO much with book or pen
Have tOiled among my fellow men,
Am weary thinking of your task!
After the first dimples they become
the inky hands of school, then the awk-
ward 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 extravaganza freshness,
in comparison as his collars grow up
ward, 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 child's but yester-
day. The young wife tells by her hands
that it is not long since the wedding,
because she can not let that new ring
alone, but twists it round for its novel
ty, and admires it, with an unconscious
knack of caressing it in idle moments.
Her dimples disappear as the children
gather to make home circle; it is the
hand of the woman now, with its very
framework traceable.
Dimples, bones and wrinkles mark the
three stages of life's progress. With
the wrinkled stage the steadiness of
youth often remains in resolute char
acters. When the Duke of Wellington
was very old man he could still fill a
glass of water to the last possible drop.
and hold it up steadily. brimful. The
helpful hands keep their youthful ac-
tivity, too. far into the whitening age.
And in the nobly-loving natures there is
sort of Immortality of youth; the
warmth of affection has given more than
royal prerogative; the hand is beauti-
full always to the eyes that know it
Familiarity. The latter years may stamp
it with the impress of a longer past of
tenderness, faithfulness and bounty. 1t
is not the ''old' 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 asselr S
Family Magazine.