The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1889-06-14
CULTIVATE THE LEFT HAND.
Some Of the Things Which Every One
Does with His Left Hand.
From the NeiO York Star.

allow child to use its left hand
much as its right one. 1t was Charles
Reade who once said men were right
handed by habit, education 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.
Indeed, every mother will tell you how she
fought against Willie or Johnny or Jennie
beiag left handed, not that to have left
handed son or a daughter is positive dis
grace, but all mechanical appliances and
everything intended for the use of humanity
is by common consent made right-handed.
Take a 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 child 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,
It's life and action. Offer to shake hands
with it and it extends 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 left 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 exception, as every mother can
testify.
1t is not natural to use either hand; that
| is to say, both hands are certainly made to
use, but until they have been trained, both
seem useless appendages. 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 opera
tors. How deftly they use their fingers;
how accurate every movement. The varia-
ton Of an eighth of an inch in a movement
might cost them the price of a weeks work,
SO accurate must they be, and yet they con-
tinue, their fingers flying swiftly day after
day without an error. They are not using
the right hand alone. This left is doing its
part. Perhaps at this machine, or at that
table, the office the left hand performs is
more important than that of the right, but
il is trained, as the rig0t is trained, in the
performance of the ordinary affairs of life,
and it is true to its master.
The factory operator was as awkward at
his work the first day he began at it as the
child is in its efforts to handle material
things with the single exception that the
operator knew what his hands were for
| and they had been trained to respond to his
will in the ordinary movements. But how
long did it take him to become perfect? One
year-two years. So can you train the left
| hand in the same length of time to perform
| any act accurately which can be done with
the right. 1t Is we'll known that persons
who lose the use Of the right hand entirely
learn to write more beautifully with the
| left than they ever did with the right. This
| is accounted for, as stated at the beginning
| of the acticle, by the fact that the left hand
| or arm is more sensitive in its nature than
the right, and, therefore, more accurate in
| precision.
Every person has certain things which
| they do with their left hand, and which,
| from never having done the same things
| with the right, they would be as awkward
about, were they to attempt it, as they are
about doing things with their left hand
which they have trained their right to per-
| form.
| Nearly every one holds a garment in the
left hand to put it on. Why? Well, they
learned to do it that way because their moth
| ers never taught them differently. And in
| putting on garment this way-putting the
right arm in tirst-the left hand performs
| all the work. 1t holds the garment, draws
| it on to the right arm, and then, while the
| right arm crooks and the hand comes
| up and catches the lapel of the
| coat, the awkward" left hand goes
| round behind you, catches the coat,
straightens it out, as it were, and proceeds
to search for the place to insert itself, and
| having found it, goes in and actually puts
| the coat on The left hand has done it all.
| And now which hand do you button with
Nine people out of ten use the left, and
those who use the left cannot button with
the right to save them. They never learned
that way. In guarding against the use of
the left hand that was one thing the mother
| forgot.
The man smoking uses his left hand to
hold his cigar or cigarette. He will tell
| you the reason he does not use his right is
because he has got in the habit of using his
| left. The fingers of the left hand of nearly
every smoker are yellow with nicotine He
uses the left hand; it's simply habit. The
right hand is busy with pen or pencil, and
| the left hand is trained to perform this
| duty, and when it has once been trained, it
| always peri rms the task whether the
| right hand is engaged at something else or
| not.
| PuglllStS use their IeIJ mana TO project
themselves from the blows of the adversary,
and probably the hardest blows ever struck
! in prize ring are the ''left-handed" ones.
LANDED one with his left" is almost as
much of chestnut in the report of fight
| as dull thudh is in hanging report.
| Delsart, famed for teaching the court
| children how to walk, move or sit down,
and whose methods of stage fainting, fall
| ing, walking, ETC., are studied by all emo
| tional actresses, says the left arm and foot
are stronger than the right
The woman sweeping or the man chop
| ping wood or hoeing in garden calls upon
the left hand to perform the greater por-
| ton of the task. Upon the broom, ak or
hoe handle the left hand goes nearest the
point of operation and directs the move
| ments of the instrument. while the right
| simply soeadies the end of the handle.
| 1t is an undeniabe fact that left-handed
| persons, or rather those who have trained
| tho left hand instead of the right, from
| infancy, are much better performers on the
piano than right-handed persons. One of
| the greatest difficulties to be overcome by
| piano players in the rendition of classical
music is the accurate execution of the bass
| if it may be so called in sucl a connec-
| tion-and musicians give two reasons for it;
| one, that the left hand is weak from mac
| uivity, and the other that it has lacked, or
does lack the education which the right
hand has received.
Doctors cannot tell by dissecting corpse
| whether the SubiAct was right or left