The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-07-22

To the real student of palmistry, fresh from the Orient where that science is all most sacred, the work of these dabblers is nothing short of sacrilege. He sees long years of patient study of psychology, physioBnomy and philosophy set at naught by people who are to him mere pretenders to the kingdom of science He recalls the traditions of his ancestors and is able to recount instances antedating the Pharaohs where Egyptian philosophers and savants rich in the lore of palmistry, stood as counseors to kings. His science is older than the Mosaic laws. It reaches far back to a time before the Hyksos kings and the dawn of Judaism in Egypt. To this student it is no superstitious rite. His science teaches him that from the day an infant Is born there are lines of character in the hand; that as the years go by opportunity is given to make or mar this character; that the left hand shows the potentialitles the right, the uses or abuses of those powers.
 In the olden days when Egypt was yet a land of political greatness no career was chosen for a child until his tiny hand had been read by a seer. In the pink fists lie, so they say, the key to his future. Parents were taught to regard these lines with their signs and promises. This prevented an embryo statesman from being sent to study medicine, a musician
 
 scientist from being made into a painter, a thing that happens too often because parents make the choice from their own wishes. An ancient Indian drama played 400 years before Christ has a scene in which the ruler of the realm calls on his philosophers and wise men to read the hands of many children In order to select for him a suitable successor.
 China too. has known palmistry asa deep and worthy science for countless centuries. Inscrutable yellow faces through long days have bored over maps and charts that explained the nerves of the body, observing the ramifcations of these nerves and reasoning out the part they play in shaping the expression of hand or face. Long pointed nails have followed line by line the markings on the hand and have read from these the things the hand has done. the things 1t might have done. and the things it will do. And in all the world no two hands have ever been found that were marked alike.
 Fingers long or short, cone-shaped or spatulate tapering or knotted at the joints have indicated to the scientist the character of the person he studies until on this diversity in hand shapes has been built one of the modern helps in the study of crlminology-that of Identification by finger prints. It Is new to us, but very old In the ofleul. IL lS piiN biietfN SN nalnaistry that we have accepted as legit- innate, and that has been raised 10 the dignity of a study without degradation Tn early Chinese history the thumb work was used as passport and woe be unto him who tried a counterfeit! N
 There is a theory that the American lh- dians may have had bit of knowledge of palmistry. though doubtless most meaere. This is based on a carving that adorns the face of a rock overlooking Lake KepemkooJic, in Nova Scotia Ihe carving represents the hand of man turned palm outward. On this palm are marked all the primary lines that usually adorn the hand of man and indicate in their arrangement that the hand they rep resent was one of strong character
 Whether this relic of the Micmac Indians is a rough etching of the hand or a pe- loved chief or the earliest American sign of the professional palmist. is not known If may be the preservation or some science known to remote ancestors or uhe Indian race in the days when It Is pe- lieved this hemisphere received us Hrst red-skin population.
 The opponents of the occult sciences do a thriving business because people are eager to find what lies beyond, despite the fact that the Good Book declares this knowledge inaccessible to the chll- dren of men. We flock eagerly into the dim parlors of the so-called savant and ask him to lift for us the veil