Evening journal., 1896-10-31
HOW DO Y0U SHAKE-2
CHARACTER AS INDICATED BY THF
MANNER OF oRAsPlNe HANDS.

English Tendency to Dignity VITA ve- |
neering There is No Generally Observed |
style OF Shaking Hands Ia This Country. /
Individual characteristics show them I
selves IN the shape of the head, tho curve OF I
the nose, the style OF walking and i'm other
less noticeable ways, and perhaps the little
matter of handshaking may be considered
the trademark of gentility a sort OF door
card as it We're TO let you know what
manner of man lives within
There are people who make their living
by reading the contour of the head, feeling
the bumps and then diving headlong into
on exhaustive dissertation on the subjects
past and future, with q full and minute
description OF all his attributes.
Then there are nomads and East Indi-
ans who read your palm and deduce or
nate accounts Of your antecedents and
your posterity. No one ever believes
them. But possibly no man has been bold
enough TO try to discern character by the
shnke Of the hand. It would be rather
difficult job Besides disclosing certain
traits of personality, handshaking figures
considerably in national characteristics.
lt is custom, just as sen bathing is, OF
talking, or eating, and after centuries OF
practice molds itself into habit.
The voluble, effergescent French shake
hands as they talk and do everything else.
They come at you with V shaped wedge
overwhelming you with whole oceans OF
words and shake hands as they would work
pump handle.
Unfortunately, perhaps, no foreigner
can aspire 20 the dignity of the president
OF the United States But what president
genuine French handshaker would makel
When il comes TO public receptions and a
few hundred palms more or less TO grasp,
your average Irenchman would make an
ideal chief executive for these democratic
states of ours.
With the English It Is quite different.
Tho tendency to dignity and solemnize ev-
erything they do finds ample scope for ex-
preston in the daily incident of handshak-
ing. They do nothing enthusiastically nor
with unsecmly haste. They veneer over
their smallest act with magnificent Sc
dateness and respectability which are ap-
palllng to an uneven tempered American
and mean nothing short of total demoli-
tion 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 insiuuating
suspicion that you are on the mourners
bench and that some dreadful old woman
with green glasses and poke bonnet is
! dolorously preparing you for the world to
come and is giving you parting shake to
speed you on your journey That is the
way 1t feels to a healthy man. The Eng
lish handshake isn't exactly corpselike,
but 1t gives you the shivers until you are
used TO it. And It is patronizing, too,
something dreadfully insular about it that
impresses you with your inferiority.
Our English cousins have allowed the
matter of fact business Of saying "Howdy"
with tho hands to degenerate into a sort of
dissipation They indulge themselves in
it, as they indulge in b. and s. when
they have a headache 1t has even gone so
far as 20 develop at times into a veritable
orgy.
= ,, tl,air.,.efis,el o-zol.saive thas talso
an infinite. almost childish, delight in
calmly folding their hand around yours
and raising it high in the air, TO stay there
until you both get tired Tho English
shake hands when they get up, shake hands
at the breakfast table, when they leave the
house, at luncheon, at dinner, when they
60 60 bed, and believe it Is not improba-
bic that they indulge themselves in their
sleep
Tho delicious and refreshing contrast to
both the French and English styles IS our
own. We are generally too busy-that is,
\ our men Gre-tO waste much timo in em-
bclishing our handshakes or prOlOnging
them beyond the period of decent civility.
Among mon, indeed, the social habit
seems to have fallen into disuse for some
occult reason. 1t is hard to say whether it
is considered effeminate and silly or mere
L ly a waste of valuable time, which 50 often
is money with us Perhaps both figure
among the causes for the decline of hand
n shaking AT any rate, you will find that,
n generally speaking, only ministers of the
gospel women, cluhmen and cads with a
small sprinkling Of real gentlemen who
L have mon9y enough to justify little iudul-
gcnces, monopohze the handshaking busi-
ness in America. OF course this statement
is qualified, because there arc times when
every man Is called on to undergo this
tiresome imposition Of society.
But among the handshaking classes Of
N America there is as wide difference as
can well be conceived
When the typical American-the bust
ness man, that isis obliged to shake
hands, he gets over it as quickly as posi-
bic. He suffers it as a matter Of necessity
A and doesn't adorn it with any stucco work
III or las relief.
There is the eccentric man, who has O
surprise for you and makes you very nery.
q GUS, because you never know what Is com
ing. Citizen George Francis Train is a fan
III example OF the bizarre handshaker. Wher
N you arc introduced to him, you put fortl
4, your digits very modestly and arc knocked
n into a heap ilguratively whom the distin
g guishod eccentric smiles, draws back ant
shakes his own hands, looking all the
while as though he enjoyed It infinitely
more than though he had your hand in his
And perhaps there is method in his mad
ness. Ask your family physician what hl
a thinks Of the hygionic side of the question
81 aud If he is crank on the subject he ma,
BIZ seh you neither to shake hands with mo-
Kiss even your closest relative. Perhaps
Cltzon Train is right after all.
Briefly there is Uriah Heep, who give
you "a faint, seasick feeling about the stom
n ach when yowtake his hand. 1t is wet
III clalnny is the conventional word-an,
sticky and cold and altogether nasty an,
reVoltlng You learn TO know Mr. Heep
a ana you would rather walk around tn,
n block than meet him face to face and hay,
to undergo the torture of contact with hi