Thomas County cat. [volume] (Colby, Kan.) 1885-1891, 1889-07-25
USE BOTH HANDS.
They We're Certainly Intended for
a Like Service.

Like Service.
People Are Right Handed Chiefly From
Education-Ths Left Hand May Bs
Made Equally Expert and
Useful.
Until of late years the most of the
world has believed that it was a Sc
riOus error to allow child to use its
left hand as much as its right one. 1t
was Charles Reade who once said men
were right-handed by habit. eiuca-
ton and perhaps by inheritance. 1t
is NO more natural to be right-handed
than left-handed. except that having
two hands we get in the habit of using
one of them more than the other In
deed. every mother will tell you how
she fought against Willie or Johnny
or Jennie being left-handed. not that
TO have a left-handed son or daughter
is positive disgrace. but all mechan-
icai appliances and every thing in
tended for the use of humanity is by
common consent made right-handed.
Take child when it is first able to
sit alone and it is neither right nor
left-handed Offer it an object and
the chances are ten to one it will reach
for it with the left hand. Every one
has noticed this. How it worries the
mother. and how she struggles for
months. or until the chila has got into
the habit OF using the right hand. to
prevent it from being. left-handed.
The left hand is the more sensitive of
the two; it is nearer the child. it is
nearer its being, its life and action.
Offer to shake hands with it and it ex-
tends the left
mot that hand" says the mother;
''give the gentleman the other hand.
And after being directed two or three
times it extends the other. and the
mother apologies by saying she does
not understand why it wants to give its
EFF; hand; that she is sure none of her
people or her husbands are left
handed. Poor. deluded mother! And
then when the little thing is put up to
the table it insists upon taking its
fork in its left hand to eat. Every
child does it. with hardly an excep-
iion, as every mother can testify.
1t is not natural to use either hand;
that is to say, both hands are certain
ly made to use, but until they have
been trained both seem useless APP
pendages The child will ram its fists
into its mouth. its eyes. or into any
thing that is within reach. 1t does
not know what its little hands are for,
and it has not the least idea what to
do with them. They are SO many white
elephants to it.
Go into factory and watch the
operators. How deity they use their
fingers; how accurate every move.
ment The variation of an eighth OF
an inch in a movement might cost
them the price of a weeks work. sc
accurate must they be. and yet they
continue, their fingers flying swiftly
day after day without an error. They
arc not using the right hand alone
The left is doing its part Perhaps Al
this machine, or at that table. the
Office the left hand performs is more
important than that of the right, bu
it is trained. as tbs right is trained. il
the performance Of the ordinary af
fairs of life and it Is true TO its master
The factory operator was as awk
ward at his work the first day he be
gan at it as the child is in its efforts t,
handle material things. with the sin
gle exception that the operator knew
what his hands were for. and they hat
Oeen trained to respond to his will In
the ordinary movements. But hov
long did it take him to become per
feet? One year-two years So ca,
you train the left hand in the sam
length of time to perform any &C
accurately which can be done will
the right 1t is well known that per
sons who lose the use of the RICH
hand entirely, learn to write NOR
beautifully with the left than they eve
did with the right This is accoun.e
for. as stated at the beginning of thi
article. by the fact that the left hand o
arm is more sensitive in its natur
than the right and. therefore. NOR
accurate in precision.
Every person has certain thing
which they do with their left hand. an
which. from never having done th
same things with the right they woul
be as awkward about. were they to al
tempt it, as they are about doing thing
With their LEI, hand which they hay
Assined their right 70 perform