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Show HOW TO SHAKE HANDS. There are only two or three people now living who can successfully shake hands. There is a good deal of hand-shaking done through the country, especially at this season of the year, but only a very small per cent. of the shakers and shakees know how to do it so as to get the entire amount of exhilaration out of it. Some grab the hand of an adversary in a quick, nervous manner that scares the victim nearly to death, while others slide the cold and clammy paw at you so that you feel the same as when you drop a cold raw oyster with vinegar on it down your back. If you are shaking hands with a lady, incline the head forward with a soft and graceful, yet half timid movement, like a boy climbing a barb-wire fence with a fifty pound watermelon. Look gently in her eyes with a kind of pleading smile, beam on her features a bright and winsome beam, say something that you have heard some one else say on similar occasions, and in the meantime shake her hand in a subdued yet vigorous way, not as though you were trying to make a mash by pulverizing her fingers, nor yet in too conservative a manner, allowing her hand to fall with a sickening thud when you let go. Care should be taken also not to hang on to the hand more than half an hour in public, as bystanders might make remarks. This is now considered quite outre and ??. |