Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-06-21
SHOWDOWN OF HANDS.
An Elevated Railroad Ticket Sellers
Observations of Human Nature.

Observations of Human Nature.
From the New York SUM-
I'm the matter of studying human ma
ture think we have the advantage over
most people, for we can study the hand"
remarked the ticket seller at an uptown
elevated railroad station one day last week.
Il don't suppose most people notice 1t, but
we rarely see face. Our eyes are usually
cast down, watching the coin or bill that is
being passed through the window. and look
Ing at the change pile ready to make
change If necessary, and to count and hand
out the tickets. We can almost tell the
time by those hands. For instance, this
saying goes:
Six o'clock workers,
Eight o'clock clerkers,
Ten o'clock brokers.
"You see, when the hard, soiled, broken.
nailed hand with the dingy looking coat
sleeve comes along, then we know it's 8
down to his days work. Then little later
comes the work or scrub woman. Now,
there's q hand we all know, the hard, red,
knotted hand, with the blue and white
dow.
Later on. about O'clock comes the
shop girl. Her hand Is usually fairly we'll
kept, with number OF cheap, dazzling
the third finger Of the left hand. Along
with her come the cash and the bundle girl,
and Office boy OF course, we can tell them
by the size OF the hand.
Later on, when the clerk at the DOWN
town Office appears, we know him at a
glance. We have, as a rule, to make change
for him, and nicely kept hand and a
highly polished NALL. with a couple of
that 1t is o'clock. Following him comes
the stenographer, whose tapping hand on
the window sill seems to tell US she is
anxious to get down and tap away at her
machine Along with her come the heads
Of stock and foorwalkers, whose hands are
always well kept Then come the broker
and bankers, and those hands we always
know. They are soft and white with care,
fully manicured nails, and generally. carry
a fine diamond ring
About the same time comes the shopper
There's nervous hand for you, always
with quick, impatient Jerk. as IL there
was but one train an hour and they must
hurry to catch it.
These hands are. of course. of different
types, nine out of ten wearing a wedding
ring. Some of these hands are soft and
white and bejeweled, while others are hard
and red, showing that the first is the wife
OF the broker, on her leisurely way down
town to indulge in many extravagances
while the latter Is the wife OF the day
worker.
You see. we know them all. though we
seldom see their faces. Occasionally we
kiducc up " Sec Inc OWHcT VI Tie manu-, ana
in ninety-nine cases out of every hundred
we are perfectly right in our judgment
We see SO many hands In the course Of a
day that we get to know them. especially
II we remain in one station any length Of
time, for most of the people travel back
and forth regularly. and we see the same
hands
I'm winter. of course, we don't see so
many, as the women usually show us a
glove, but most men slip of their glove
80 as to handle their money easily. In time
suppose, we'd get to know the gloves II
the women didn't change them so often
according to style.
Then, last of all, there's the hand we all
dread, the quick. nervous hand which is
usually very thin and a woman's and
passes the coin through the window ex-
citedly. regardless of the passenger wait
ing at the window for change. This hand
thrusts the money through the window Just
as we are passing the change out to the
waiting hand, and naturally there's a mix
up.
THE result is always a shortage IN the
count at the end of the day. That's the
hand We call the butter-in, and we all
dread it"