The Monitor. [volume] (Woodstown, N.J.) 1884-1892, 1889-11-15
SHOW YOUR HAND
TROUBLES IN THE WAY OF APPLY
ING RULES IN PALMlSTRY.

Lime of Saturn"--Short Little Fingers
and Thumbs Of Different Kinds.
have been twenty years at the stud,
Of palmistry or chirognomy, and during
that time have not been able to discovel
any philosophic reason for believing tina
the lines of the hand and its shape indi
cate character. The want of a connect
ing theory frequently causes me to Loss
all hope and belief in the investigation
but practice restores confidence. No one
can look at even a few hands every
month for years together without being
driven to the conclusion that they really
do contain a guide to much that is to be
found in the nature of their owners. As
an actual fact, however, I find that the
leading lines Of the hand are never eccen'
~trically deformed, broken or deficient in
persons who have not some gaps OF
queer places in their characters. to
match.
H / n OF SATURN.
If the lines are long, clear, red, gently
curved, except the upright ones, few in
number, and shown in a hand that has
fingers with substantial tips and not too
long roots, the best sort of nature may
be looked for. In the case of persons of
brilliant original talent and thought, the
upright line from the base Of the palm
toward the fingers is never absent and
Is sometimes repeated twice or even
thrice. 1t is called the .sline of Saturn"
and springs from many different places.
In musicians, actors and some others it
usually starts from below the little
finger. When it is Joined at the base to
the curved line round the thumb an in
dependence of feeling out of proportion
to the will strength or the pride of the
rest Of the character is to be expected.
If the line called that of the head, which
crosses the hand from above the thumb,
usually turning down to the pad below
the little finger, be entirely separate
from the line that surrounds the thumb,
the whole character will be modified,
whether it be a good or bad one, by this
separation. As a rule that modification
will tend to make the person seem more
clever when thinking out of his own
head, but less able, however sympathetic
and docile, to adopt the modes of getting
at ideas by which his teachers achieve
their success.
A short little finger often goes with
a sweetness, a readiness to repent of evil
and of anger, and sometimes eve a
cheerful abnegation. Both kinds are
consistent with a permanence of mega
tive wishes, or, as it is usually called,
~obstinacy, as this is a quality capable of
drawing strength from many sources. A
large ended thumb is very good in a
good man, and helps him to fight the
battle of life. In a dull and selfish man
it enables him to be extra oppressive at
home, and to make his opinions Of much
more effect than their value warrants.
A thumb whose end is large and its shaft
poor, as though it were q door handle
with a weak neck and could be twisted
off the hand, is not al advantage. This
leads to many evils, and, though often
found in a good man, gives a tendency
to change the reasons for his good deeds
or good opinions, even after he has been
emphatic in choosing or defending them.
Such change will usually be rather Of
the nature of a reversal than a drifting
away.
BLUNT FINGERS y THUMBS.
Blunt ended thumbs seldom go with a
natural tendency to p~oliteness of address
or a polished approach, except when, as
in persons much before the world, this
has been learned as a part. But in good
types it goes with a gentleness and kind
ness of manner bred by self knowledge
which has taught the wne to counter
act his faults before they have time to
hurt innocent people. 1t follows as a
matter of course that among women
those whose fingers and thumbs are
pointed are generally the more super
ficially charming. Those with large,
blunt ended fingers are (if intellectual
and ~educated) more valued and more
impressive, and even commanding. But
command, like melancholy, has more
than one origin, viewed as an expression
of constitutional tendency.
Pointed fingered people have no excuse
if they are not agreeable, for it costs
them little to seem SO. If large ended
blunt fingered people show delicate dis
SclEI1cut, Bell Al meutdl
matters, indulgence to shallow weak
ness, patience with anger and folly, they
are either entirely uninterested person
ally in the occasions that bring such
qualities before them, or have bought
their good nature at a price, like the
Centurion his freedom.
When a student of the hand has read
and applied for himself all the volumes
that have been written on the subject,
and when he has also discovered how to
discount the bias of his different authors
by guessing at their hands and account
ing for their predictions, and when he
has achieved such proficiency in looking
at a hand and adding up all the conflict
ing forces suggested by its balance of
lines and segments that he at once
tell how to classify the owner and what
to expect of him, yet the greatest of all
difficulties will remain to be surmounted.
This hard hill to climb is nothing less
than to describe a character in such
terms that the owner of the same must
confess his portrait and say, Eyes, it is
true; l am like that."-Edwin Ellis in
Universal Review.