The Washington herald., 1916-01-26
Hands.
~ JOHN D. BARRY.


even more reason for saying that these men have
at last reached the state of mind that can grasp
the secrets2
1t may be that Nature cannot transmit her
knowledge until the world is approximately ready
TO receive it, Even now the revelation of so many
of her greatest secrets is hailed with outcres oi
indignation and resentment Occasionally, man.
kind is plunged into furious controversy and those
who have been chosen to be the revealers are pun
|ished and reviied. 1t often takes many years for
the scientific benefacor of the to win vindiea
ton.
Their secrets men cannot keep. Here
Nature almost invariably has her will And the
longer man lives the more surely and clearly
Nature fixes on him the marks Of truth. 1t is, OF
course, by means of speech, as we'll as by acts,
that human beings chiefly express themselves.
How much may be revealed by the infection Of
a voice, the turn of phrase by an exclamation.
Only exceptional cleyerness and ineessant care can
keep back full revelation. Till early middle age a
man may hide his soul behind the mask Of youth
and innocence Then. on the face, the writing be-
gins. Sometimes woman succeeds in postponing
the day; but come it must. Even more subtle -is
the working of Nature on those faithful friends Of
man, those ancient instruments" as Miss Jane
Adams calls them. the hands.
Some men hardly think of their hands. Women
always think of theirs. Lately, it has become
fashionable for certain kinds of men to take as
much care Of their hands as they do of their teeth.
Other men regard such care as sign Of effemi-
macy It is certainly unmanly for men to have
their hngernas painted against this practice there
is strong prejudice even among many of those
men who faithfully patronize manicure shops.
Women do everything in their power to keep their
hands looking beautiful By hands they often judge
one another With regard to their own hands they
are likely to be exceedingly sensitive.
There records of toll that the world recog-
nires as honorable. But among them the hands of
ladies not included Men, in spite Of manicurcs,
are not expected have beautiful hands. Yet they
often do have them, men. too. who have no other
feature of beauty. Here is example of the way
in which Nature loves to play tricks. Study the
rough giant who is ugly of face and figure beauti-
full as to hands, You will find that those hands
represent quality in his character. Those who
know him we'll may appreciate the quality; his wife
may be the only one aware of it.
In recent YEARS the manicures have done an in
direct service of great value. They have made
most people think about hands and take care of
their own hands. Never before have hands been
so tended. But docs not keep nature from
telling certain easily recognizable facts about the
owners of hands
As children develop they quickly show whether
they are lacking in what call manual dextcrity.
Such skill we apt to assume belonging to
the hands. 1t really belongs, of course to the
brain. Only lately has manual dexterity been suf-
hcienty esteemed to be taught in the schools. And
yet it is of immense service all ones life. There
are men who continually shirk simple and yet i'm
portant service at home the ground that they
have knack of handling tools 1t is knack
easily acquired if the mind is early enough in
structed
The whole secret lies here. The hands, like the
face and like the voice, are the servants of the
mind. And in man, it is through the mind that
Nature expresses herself By the bungng use of
the hands, that is, through disobedence or mpcr-
feet obedience, many people thwart the mind. But
the hands never thwart Nature in her de-
termination to express there what she wishes to
reveal And Nature always reveals the truth
Sometimes, however, people misinterpret. Some OF
the plainest revelations of character come from
handwriting How quickly writing will show care
lessness, precision, conceit, not to mention more
subtle traits. In the matter Of composition, the
revelations even more explicit. AS composition
is form of Speech it is another form of self
dranatizaton. But here come to one of the
curious failures of education. In speech nearly all
people can express their thoughts pretty. clearly
and forcibly by of the hand that is, by writ
ing. What is the reason9 Is it because children
are taught to write several years after they begin
to speak, Is it that the hand, in its very nature
a poorer servant than the tongue? These are ques-
tions that have probably puzzled educators since
education began
Those people who scoff at the idea of reading
character from handwriting in fact always en-
gaging in the practice. just as, more or less un-
consciously we judge every one we meet, we are
apt to judge strangers by their handwriting At
once we recognize the hand of the iliterate Some
times the revelation is plain that it ernbarrasses
us. 1t gives US the feeling that we have when we
see people making crude social blunders or expos
ing their defects of education by ungrammaticai
speech. Those who seldom write usually take
great pains in writing; their very care is a be-
trayal 1t is probably recognition of this COM
mon fact. that makes many self-consciously SUI
perior people Intentionally careless. Their habit
pf At Jnf,,