The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1896-09-02
HOW DO YOU SHAKE?
Character Indicated by Manner OF
Grasping Hands.
French Way Is Overwhelming Eng
lish Has Tendency to Dignity.

Individual characteristics show them
selves in tho shapc OF the hoad, the curve Of
The nose, the style of walking ana In other
less noticeable ways, and perhaps tho little
matter Of haudshaking mny be considered
the trademark 81 gentility, sort Of door
card, as it were, 10 let you know what
manner Of man lives within.
There nre people who mako their living
by reading the contour Of the head, feeling
the bumps and then diving hendlong into
an exhaustive dissertation on the subjects
past and future, with q full and minute
description Il all his attributes.
Then thcfo arc nonads and East Indi-
ans who read your palm and deduce or
nate accounts Of your antecedents and
your postcri'y. No ono ever believes
them. But possibly no man has been bold
enough 60 try % discern character by the
shake OF tho hand. 1t would bo rather a
difficult job Besides disclosing certain
traits of personality, hand5haking figures
considerably In national characteristics.
II Is a custom, Just as scs bathing is, or
talking, or eating, and, after centuries OF
practice, mold itself into habit.
The yoiui,o, Cf-cryesccnt French shake
hands as tEc! talk ana do everything else.
They como at you with V shaped wedge,
overwhe,ming you with whole oceans Of
words and shulIo hands as they would work
pump hansle.
Unfortunately, perhaps, no foreigner
can aspire TO thc dignity Of the president
of the United States. But what president
a genuine French handshaker would makel
When it comes 10 public receptions and a
few hundred Palms more or less to grasp,
your average Frcnchman would make an
ideal chief executive for these democratic
states OF ocrs.
With tho English 1. Il quito different.
Tho tendency 70 dignity and solemnize ev-
erything they do finds ample scope for ex-
preston in the daily incident of hhndshak-
ing. They do nothing enthusiastically nor
with unscemly haste. They veneer over
their smallest act with magnificent Sc
dateness and respc, liability which are ap-
palling to an uneven tempered American
and mean nothing short Of total demoli-
tion Of equilibrium for on cxcitable Gaul.
And thus 1t comes about that when you
shake hands with an Englishman or an
English woman you have an insnunting
suspicion that you are on tho mourncrs'
bench and that some dreadful old woman
with green glasses and poke bonnet is
dolorously preparing you for tho world TO
come and Ia giving you a parting shake to
speed you on your journey. That is the
way 1t feels u IA healthy man. The Eng
lish handshakc isn't exactly corpselike,
but IL gives you tho shivors until you are
used 10 il. And IL Ia patronizing, too,
something dreadfully insular about IL that
tmpresses you with your inferiority.
Our English cousins have allowed the
matter of fact business of saying Howdy"
with the hands to degenerate into sort of
dissipation. They indulge thcmselves in
It, as they Indulge in b. and $. when
they have headache. It has even gone so
far as 10 develop at times into vcritable
orgy.
In their refined, exclusive way they take
en- infinite almost childish, delight in
calmly folding their i:and around yours
and raising IL high in the air. tn stay there
until you beth get tired. Tho English
shake hands when they get up, shake hands
Mt the breakfast table, when they leave tho
house, at luncheon, at dinner, when they
go TO bed. and believe it is not improba-
bic that they indulge themselves In their
sleep.
The delicious and refreshing contrast to
both the French and English styles is our
own. We are generally too busy-that is,
our men are---to waste much timo in ON
belllshing our handshakcs or prolonging
them beyond the period of decent civility.
Among men, indeed, tho social habit
seems TO have fallen into disusc for some
occult reason. IL Is hard 10 say whether 10
is considered effeminatc and silly or mere
~ waste Of valuable time, which so often
Is money with us Perhaps both figure
among tho causes for the decline of hand.
shaking. At any rate, you will find that,
generally speaking, only ministers of the
gospel. women clubmen and cads, with
small sprinLl.ng Of real gentlemen who
have money enough to justify little indul-
gences, monopoiizc the handshaking bust
ness in America. or course this statement
Is qualified, because there are times when
every man Is called on 20 undergo this
tircsomc imposition of society.
But among the handshal<ing classes Of
America there IL rs wide difference as
can well be conceived
When the typical American-the busi-
ness man, that isis obliged TO shake
hands. hc gets over it as quickly os posi-
BILE He suffers it as n matter Of necessity
and doesn't adorn IL with any stucco work
or has rolicf.
There is the eccentric man, who hns
surprise for You and makes you very ncrv-
Gus, because you never know what is com