The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1896-09-06
THE HANDS OF WOMEN
Athletic Girls Who Often Find 1t Easier
to Row Than to Darn
Stockings

1t has lately come in my way to ex-
anime the hands of number of girls in
various walks of life.
The results of my observations have
been at once interesting and surprising.
1 found, for instance, the best developed,
most capable hands that came under my
observation to be those of a hair-dresser
and of a young girl who devotes many
hours daily to piano practice. In all cases
the development of the hands was faulty
Curiously enough the hands OF the three
athletic girls who submitted their men,
bers to my investigation were infexible
unequally developed and but imperfectly
dextrous. Each of them had good grip,
but was awkward in certain little delicate
manipulations with which she was tested,
and could bear but little strain upon the
outstretched fingers. One OF them could
not darn stockings well because to hold
the needle tired her hand dreadfulIy."
Nevertheless she could hold the handles
of her bicycle for hours at time; could
travel on her hands along the parallel
bars, sustaining her entire weight by each
hand alternately. She could come down
a rope hand over hand, and pulled capt.
tai oar, but she was grooming audibly over
an hour.
Now, it was not unwillingness to darn
stockings, or to write, that caused this
tired feeling to take possession of the ath-
letic hand. We are most of us deficient,
through neglect, in manual dexterity and
endurance. Nearly all our work, nearly
all our play, and quite all of our ordinary
athletic exercise is of the sort that hurts
Il
trained oarsman has particularly helpless
hands when it comes to anything more
delicate than gripping an oar. Notice the
hands of the bicyclist, man or woman,
the ball-player, the cricket expert, and
you will see that they have a tendency,
when idle, to close upon themselves. You
can already tell the bicycle girl by her
clenched fists. The reason for this is OBJ
vious. Those muscles of the hand that
grip and hold are getting too much exer-
else, while those that extend the fingers
that keep the palms open and assist in the
more delicate moves of the hand, are be-
coming small and feeble from disuse
These latter are the muscles that give
roundness and irmness to the wrist and
fingers; that will develop, dimple the
knuckles and cushion the palm, and add
to the beauty of the hand. Their neglect,
moreover, means distinct loss in useful
ness of the member. To the doom science
has written for the race-that it is to be
bald, toothless, sightless and but feebly en-
dowed with Iocomotion there is danger
unless we take heed to our employments
that it shall also come to be written, with
hands that have lost their cunning"
This would indeed be a pity, for the
human hand, more than any other physi-
cal attribute, has determined human supe-
riority. The development of the thum b
had more to do with mans spiritual
growth than had The loss of the tail.
Every girl VINO desires useful and
shapely hands, fingers able to remove a
foreign substance from the eye, as well as
capable of exerting a fourteen-pound pres
sure upon a piano-key, or of gripping a
handle-bar, should devote a certain
amount of time each week to the training
of these members.
There is no better exercise to counteract
the excessive development of the gripping
muscles than opening the hand and ex-
tending the fingers, separating them as
widely as possible and bending them
backward. Simpler Try it and see how
almost instantly your infexible fingers
are exhausted by the effort. Open The
hand, bring the fingers into line and prac-
tee rotating the thumb. Unless your