The news and herald. (Winnsboro, S.C.) 1877-1900, 1888-05-08
WHY DO WE sHA1ela HANnsq
The PnpP sHaSd die sRrocessy sap Un-
Slecessaryis,nd DisagreeabIa,on one.

VII Do VIZ SHAME dANnSP
Ths Hump .Has dlo ,prooeess 4 an3 Un-
sseeessarys,nd Observation-Disclosures.
If any one who is atallcurious in the
matter Of statistics will be good enough
to ftry and calculate athes number Of
people who meet each other eYary day in
Loltdom alone, to say nothing aof the
proRhices, or, INTACT, Of anya6ther place
oitlier, in .orfoutS of England, z and of
wlom' quito two-thirds, we think we
may positively assert. !'.'shake hands"
wien they do, SO meet, the numbers
would probably appear absolutely in
efeaible, and yet more extraordinary
stilE it would seem that out Of these
many millions Of hand shakers, no two
are9 absolutely similar. Why do we
shake handsp No one appears to know.
1t aoes not mean much, il anything.
WHO has not suffered from the strong
andthearty grasp of, let us fondly hope,
ardent friendship, when our perhaps
ringsd hand IS wrpng with the ferYor
2e e&&ffthUsitistic glisiingness OF ,tffectioir
by some jovial Hercules in dogsl1ins,
who forgets he sometimes goes near to
smashing the fragile and cQnflding fin
gers rashly for the moment placed
at his mercy. Why are we thus COM
PEELED to suffer from our friends? WHO
h2''enotl. suffered from the man who,
IS OIyou meet him, holds eSour hand
s,.e,sf it were"a pump handle for ten
mir1tes and will not let go? WHO has.
NOT Suffered from that other who will
nokhold on at all, but allows you to do
th6gshaking process for him2 Who
doeS. not know the man who simply
seiz&s you hand to throw it violently
away from him in apparent furyp Who
does not fear the sort of Spasmodic
hanl shake who pushes you backwards
apdforwards to him and from him, as
IL lAS were saving you perpendicularly
through? Who does not try to shun
the man who works your arm around as
if you were u barrel organp Who Is
unaequainted with the man with the
clamny hand who, as a rule, will not
wear gloves? Why must we shake
haliaS with him?
Yet we Ill do it; we dislike it; we
DISLIKE it very much, even he secs we
dislike it, that it is positively distaste.
full to us; yet, meet him tomorrow, and
out comes his hand once more to en-
gulf5your own, and make you wish you
had gone wherever you were going by
another route. To sit down calmly to
write Of ''shalsing hands'' is so enor-
moSs an undertaking that one would
'fsqttar3 3almost three volumes wherein
to express all there is to be said on this
subject. When one thinks that not
only every country in the world, but
nearly every county in that country
has some special and distinguishing
method Of salutation on meeting friends
n oh
even to attempt it. We are credibly
informed that handshaking, which is
supposed to be proof of friendly feel
ing, first came into fashion in the time
Of HenrysII.
Up to that time onr ancestors we're
more atfectionate in their greetings
than we, their colder-natured de-
scendants, embracing and kissing
each other much in the same fashion
as our neighbors on the other side Of
the Channel and in Italy are accus-
toned to do at the present moment.
The historian who spleased 70 date the
commencement of handshaking in place
Of osculation and embracing about
Henry II IS time Is perhaps in error, as
it is more probable the close embrace Of
acquaintances began to be discontinued
later on, perhaps when tobacco was
first introduced into this country. This
certainly seems a probable surmise. as
even in our present year Of grace man
who has been smoking a cheap cigar OF
a rank pipe is certainly not the most
embraceable object in the world; and
only think what the tobacco of Ra-
leigh's time must have been like
However, whether Henry II did or
did not begin the fashion Of ''shaking
hands," it is now rapidly becoming
overdone. in England. The fine sneur
qes pois," the "creme dc la creme" the
quite too-toO people do not indulge in
this practice as much as the upper and
lower middle classes, for there every
one shakes hands with every one Oh en-
tering and leaving a room, on meeting
in the street, and on saying ''good
morning." ''good night" or "good-by."
1t is q wonder we English have not
transplantcd this irritating and glove
splitting habit over tho world. Ger
tainly in some parts of India they shake
hands as we do, but it is by no means
universal, though, to please us be it
understood, foreigners Of all degrees,
from the duke to the dustman, try to
mgratiate themselves with us English
people by shaking our hands immoder-
ately whenever they get a chance :,
-a--+--A <----
RofoNa He Was IE,ororor