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Show HOW TO SHAKE HANDS WITH A BOER. Display of Cordiality Such as Is Customary in the West Would Make Him Your Lifelong Enemy, The laugh has long enjoyed tho placo of honor as a confession ot character. char-acter. But a better lndox than the laugh, in tho opinion of Thaddeus S. Graham of Worcester Is the hand-shako. hand-shako. "Tho handshake, In the first place," ho said, "Is a modern custom at least, as far as I ever found out. In tho biblical days and in the Homoric days mon used to step up and fondly embrace ono nnothor, and this you can And today on the continent of Europe. But now every nation shakes hands moro or less, and no two alike. Hero in Amorlca the typical shako lasts thirty or sixty or ninety seconds. "In the orient there Is no geniality about It, but a deep, reverential ceremony, cere-mony, and often It Is merely symbolic, with no clasping ot the other fellow's hand at all. But it you wast tho queer and mysterious handshake go to the Transvaal. It you literally Bhake a Boor's hand you will offend him bo-yond bo-yond recovery. All you can do. If you havo any idea of retaining his good graces, Is to take his hand In yours, gently and tenderly, as though ho had run a splinter Into it and you wero coaxing him to let you tako it out. You press it Just tho least bit for the merest fraction of a second, as though It were a kodak, you know, and you wero snapping his picture with it And then you drop It. It seems simple enough. But when you havo a long rldo acrosB the voldt and wish to make a good impression upon a possible host at a farm by, a show of honest heartiness, hearti-ness, It Is dollars to doughnuts you will grasp his hand and shako it like a bottle of medicine. Then he'll look extremely dignified and solemn, and you might as well mako up your mind that you are no friend or his, and never will be." |