| Show IS TOO MUCH handshaking other ways of Gre greeting etina friends that are much preferable according to writer although a few have suffered the unpleasant experience of the man in the case recently reported the bones of whose hands bands were forced out of place by the viselike vise like grasp of a too vigorous and unduly demonstrative friend most people will be inspired by their personal recollections to sympathize with this victim of a misdirected ardor everyone knows people who seek to express the sincerity and earnestness nest ness of their goodwill good will by squeezing the hand they take as though they were trying to break every one of tire the score or so of bones which the human hand comprises and every one on such occasions must have wished that some other form of salutation than the one most in vogue had been devised and were generally practiced shaking hands Is a relic of barbarism anyhow an it became the custom in the days when every one carried a dagger in his bis belt and when one friend meeting another thought it necessary to attest the peacefulness illness of his intentions tent ions by extending an open palm then the other man could do no less than make a similarly reassuring demonstration on and tile tho grasp of these two extended hands naturally followed subsequently by a logical process of evolution the handshake grew to bo be the conventional form of greeting and the refusal of a proffered hand was regarded as one of those insults whose dishonor can call only be wiped out with blood now the custom Is too firmly and widely established for its abandonment to be conceivable and et there are various things about it which render it unsatisfactory rather surprisingly it has thus far escaped the denunciations of the doe doc tore tora who have spared no little else ele as a possible occasion for ahll comment cation of injurious microbes mic robes but one does not have to be a president of the united states nor even a popular poll engaged in a canvass for votes not sometimes to have wished that the handshaking habit had never been contracted there are so many ways of shaking hands that are objection oble eble and there are so many different kinds of hands whose touch com comment munt rates cates a sensation not exactly pleasant hands bands that are too hot or too cold too moist or too dry or whose inert binl ness ss communicates an tary sense of indifference on oil the part of their possessors every one Is familiar with the hand shake hahe in which all the shaking has to he be done by the party of tile tho first part in which the hand one grasps lies limp and lifeless in fit ones own to be taken or left to be squeezed or let drop as one pleases while the attl atti tude of the owner suggests wi hii abao hilp lack of interest in ilia ihu pro pi ings behold that also Is vanity and vexation of spirit so Is the question que silon which recurrently arises and which it may be suspected Is the source of nuch much secret embarrassment the ques tion of to shake or not to shake UtI etiquette quette has its rules for this but no rules etiquette can formulate will cover every case that may arise and to determine the right thing may not always be easy it will be seen been that tho the chinese plan has its advantages the china man mail you meet does not shake your 3 our hand ile ho bows and shakes his own philadelphia inquirer |
