Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1888-06-22
NY LADY'S HIND.
4 Facorite suffice. for Poets and Ronsancers
iM HI Tines

A Facorite suffice. for Poets aud Ronsancers
in HI Times
IT. G. Harbaugh, in New York Mercury.l
My laly's hand occupied a promi-
nent place in romance and history. It
is the lover Florizen who says to the
coy Perdita in "a Winters Tale:"
take thv hand this hand,
AS soft Us doves down and as white as
! Or Ethiopian's tooth, or the famed snow,
| That's bolted by the Northern blasts twice DER.
We know that Aphrodite's hand had
"rosy, slender fingers" and that the
hand of one of Cleopatra's women
threw Antony into raptures, but not
long enough, however, to break the
spell thrown around him by the "glori-
Gus sorceress Of the Nile" The hands
of the Egyptian women were celebrated
for their contour, and the old NEGRO
mancers of Ramesan days used to hold
them in awe for their delicate lines.
Old history says that the hand of Anne
of Austria was as white as snow" while
the world knows that good Queen Bess
was not very proud of the shape of her
royal fingers. It was not enough that
she was destined to lend her name to
the golden age of literature. AS she
grew more and more unshapely, much
to her chagrin, and the ladies of her
court who were richer than the Queen
in this one respect met with more than
one rebuff. Yet her hand could sign
the death warrants of Essex and of Mar
of Scots, the unfortunate Queen whose
white hand, fairer than her English
cousins, lured the harper Rizzio to his
death where ye queene's staircase doth
begin"
Queen Bess had not the only faulty
hand to be found in history. Josephine
was similarly afflicted, but Josephine
was not so "touchy" on what was con-
sidered royal misfortune. Possibly
it was because the negress of Martin
ique, looking at that hand, saw the
crown of an empress and the homage
of world. 1t was not hand like
Lady Macbeth's, which call the per-
fumes of Araby" could not sweeten.
1t is old Cover who sings:
Isaw her weave the sleided silk
| With fingers long, small. white as milk,
and the willy Vivien with her hand cast
Merlin into the enchanted sleep. In
the Arthurian tales we see the snowy
fingers of Iseult, and going back to the
Bard OF Avon Romeo breakes out into
raptures over Juliet's hands.
My lady's hand as an adjunct of
beauty has had certain value in all
climes and ages. 1t was never hidden
by gloves by the beauties of Rome, and
Cicero stepped aside from oratory long
enough to speak of "the subtle devices
of the fingers" after seeing them at the
Lutte. The old writer's have left on re-
cord the assertion that it was Pappa's
shapely hand more than her eyes that
enchanted Nero, and we know that my
lady's hand sent the ogre Marat to his
final account at the bar of Heaven.
know of nothing that occupies in
romance and history so prominent q
place as the hand. Mrs. Siddons used
to go to the clenched hands of the
carved Egyptian gods for expression, :"
and Belisarius is said to have leaped
from his charger during a march to rave
over the beauty of the hand of peas
ant girl. Students of Shakespeare know
of whose hand it is said:
In whose comparisons all whites are ink
Writing their own reproach. to whose soft
| seizure
| The cygnet's down is harsh and spirit of sense
| Hard as the palm of ploughman.
| Wherever my lady's hand is it will
assert its powers. Whether at the
head of armies with Zenobia, or aveng-
ing the innocent with Charlotte Corday,
or enlightening the world of literature
with De Stael, it keeps it's place, tar
get for poets and the lodestone Of love.
Was it not of fingers of friendship that
the good gray poet laureate thought
when he penned one Of his finest
stanzas:
Oh, for the touch of vanished hand
The sound Of II voice that is still
SOCIAL CUsTOMs OF TIE f. 0UIMAUX
Their social customs are so full of in