Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1889-06-22
CULTIVATE THE LEFT HAND.
PEOPLE ARE LEFT HANDED FROM
HABIT AND EDUCATION.
Both Hands Can be Made Useful-The
Left Hand More Accurate
Than the Left.

Until of late years the most Of the worlC
| has believed that it was a serious error Il
| allow child to use its left hand as much
as its right one. 1t was Charles Readt
| who once said men were right-handeC
| by habit, education, and perhaps by in.
heritance. 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 Jenny
being left-handed, not that TO have left
handed son Or daughter is a positive dis
grace, but all mechanical appliances and
everything intended 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. Everyone 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,
its life and action. Offer to shake hands
with it and it extends the left.
"Not that hand says the mother, give
the gentleman the other hand.o And
after being directed two or three times it
extends the other and the mother apollo
gizes by saying she does not understand
why it wants to give its left hand that
she is sure none Of her people or her hus-
bands are left-handed. Poor deluded
mother And then when the little thing
is put up to the table it insists upon tax
ing 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 10 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 anything that is within
reach. 1t d ICES 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 deity they use their fingers
how accurate every movement. Thevaria-
ton of an eighth of an inch in 4 move
ment might cost them the price of weeks
work, so accurate must they be, and vet
they continue, their fingers flying swiftly
day after dry without an error They are
not using the right hand alone. The 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 right is
trained, in the performance OF the ordi-
nary 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 per-
feet? Oae 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 well
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 this article,
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
perform.
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
mothers never taught them differently.
And in putting on a garment this
way-putting the right arm in tirst-the
left hand performs all the work. 1t holds
the garment, draws it on 10 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, straight
ems il out, as it were, and proceeds to
search for the place to insert itself, and
uAFIi2E lpall IL, 8btH III anu dNLAuliE Dubc
the coat on. The left hand has done il 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
the left. The fingers Of the left hand Of
every smoker are yellow with nicotine
HI 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 performs the task whether the
right hand is engaged at something else or
not
Pugilists use their left hand TO protect
themselves from the blows Of an 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 as "dull thud" is in a
hanging report.
AFElSaTkt, lIllNu loI lSdEAlIllH Lit LphI I
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 the garden, calls
upon the left hand to perform the greater
portion of the task. Upon the broom, ak
or hoe handle the left hand goes nearest
the point of operation and directs the
movements Of the instrument, while the
right hand simply steadies the end Of the
handle.
It is an undeniable fact that left-handed
persons, or rather those who have trained
the left hand instead of the right, from
infancy, are much better performers on the
| mann than rinht-handed nersnns One Of