The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1896-06-25
SHAKING HANDS.
A Persons Character Is shown by HL
Manner.

VIC CuIN Z VI lIlt IlOSts lIle sly IL Vi Walk
ing, and in other less noticeable ways,
and perhaps the little matter of hand
shaking may be considered the trade
mark of gentility, sort of door card,
as it were, to let you know what man.
ner of man lives within.
There are people who make their liv-
ing by reading the contour of the head,
feeling the bumps, and then diving
headlong into an exhaustive disserta-
ton on the subjects past and future,
with a full and minute description of all
his attributes. Some of these charla-
tans have been known to actually be-
Ecve in their powers of divination.
Then there are nomads and East In
dams, who read your palm and dcduce
ornate accounts of your antecedents
and your pOsterity. No one ever be-
lieves them.
But possibly no man has been bold
CROUCH to try to discern character by
the shake of the hand. 1t would be
rather difficult job. Besides discIos-
ing certain traits of personality, hand
shaking figures considerably in nation
al characteristics.
1t is custom, just as sea-bathing is,
or talking, or eating, and, after CEN
turtles of practice, molds itself into a
habit.
The voluble, etfervescent French ma
ton shake hands as they talk and do
everything else. They come at you
with a V-shaped wedge, overwhelming
you with whole oceans of words, and
shake hands like pump handle.
Unfortunately, perhaps, no foreigner
can aspire to the dignity of the presi-
dent of the United States, but what
q president a genuine French hand
shaker would make! When it comes
to public receptions, and few hun
dred palms, more or less, to grasp, your
average Frenchman would make an
IDEAL chief executive in these demo-
cratic states of ours.
With the English it is quite different
The tendency to dignity and solemnize
everything they do finds ample scope
for expression in the daily incident of
handshaling. They do nothing enthu-
siasticaIly, nor with unseemly haste.
| They veneer ever their smallest act
with a magnificent sedateness and re-
speciality which is appalling to an
uneven-tempered American, and mean
nothing short of total demolition of
equilibrium for an eXcitable Gaul.
And thus it comes about that when
you shake hands with an Englishman
or an English woman, you have an in
sinuating suspicion that you are on the
mourners' bench, and that some dread
full old woman with green glasses and
poke bonnet is dolorously preparing
you for the world to come, and is giving
you a parting shake to speed you on
Your journey. That is the way it feels
to healthy man. The English hand
shake isn't exactly corpselille, but it
! gives you the snivers until you are used
to it. And it is patronizing, 100; some
thing dreadfully insular about it, that
impresses you with your infcriority.
Our English cousins have allowed the
matter-of-fact business of saying
"HOwdy" with the hands to degener.
ate into a sort of dissipation. They in
d'IIge themselves in it, as they indulge
in a "B and S" when they have head
ache. 1t has even gone so far as to de-
velop at times into IA yeritable orgie.
In their refined, exclusive way, they
take an infinite, almost childish delight
in calmly folding their hand around
yours and raising it high i'll the air, to
stay there until you both get tired
The English shake hands when they
get up, shake hands at the breakfast
table when they leave the house, at
luncheon, at dinner, when they 90 to
bed, and believe it is not improbable
that they indulge themselves in their
sleep.
The delicious and refreshing contrast
tc both the French and English styles
is our own. We are generally too busy
that is, our men are, to waste much time
in embellishing our handshakes, or pro-
longing them beyond the period of de-
cent civility.
Among men, indeed, the special habit
seems to have fallen into disuse for
some occult reason. 1t is hard to say
whether it is considered effeminate and
silly, or merely waste of valuable
time, which so often is money with
us. Perhaps both figure among the
causes for the decline of handshaking
AT any rate you will find that, gen
orally speaking, only ministers of the
Gospel, women, club men and cads, with
small sPrinlling of real gentlemen
who have money enough to justify lit.
tic indulgences, monopolize the hand.
shaking business in America. OF
course, this statement is qualified be-
cause there are times when every man
is called on to undergo this tiresome
imposition of society.
But among the handshalling classes
o. America there is a wide difference
Rs can well be conceived
When the typical American, the bust
ness man, that is, is obliged to shake
hands, he gets over it as quickly as
possible. He suffers it as a matter of
necessity, and doesn't adorn il with any
stucco work or bas-reliefs. - Toledo
Blade.
Dog and Pipe.
The Bristol (England) Times gives