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Show The Useless Hand Society ---Are You a KemW? The New Cult of Ambirfexterity,Which Is Urged Not Only for Its Material Usefulness in Surgery and the Arts, but Also as a Moral Influence. fL 7 rCop.TTlcbf 101?. tT tb? New Tori IF "two heads arc better than one." and two eyes nm battel than one, and two ears are better tbnn one, and two feet an- better than one is that the-MMOD the-MMOD why one band is belter than two? What's thi answer? I Can ron write jour name with your I fight hand am) at 'be ame time draw even a rough sketch of a pig with your I left hand? Can you write your nam1 with your left hand? Can you sign JTO r m I"its win, .uir left hand in e.i-e ,,ur II right i injured? Can you sharpen a pea-, r cil with your loft hand, or count yourj I money or handle a spoon, or button jour si coat? H No? Then the i bnrgc against y on is I something as follows You are delil.er- ately associating yourself vx i t h The Half Liev(doii ; i.'wd Yon lh ot Phe Ixp-W Ixp-W Sided Buii'h. You are a self-elected 'member .f 'Jhe UiseUu -Hand Soi i H You complain of l.n-i; .f friends and Utterly uegk-ct one-half of sour Ten Best Friends. B H You envy people and allow one of the two lobes of jour bruin lo ntrophj 3 through disuse. You whine about the odds aains; you in llie bghl for elsl-R elsl-R fnce while hanging, useless, at the end J tf your left arm is the bet fighting I wcajvou man i'ht had! Everything Is Right Handed. Now comes the new Cult of Two-Haud-j II ednes. So bolJ a front is it making and so stiff is Its talk that already a good Jt many folks nre hoeoiuiug slightly i-tu- bsrrasscd. They nre wondering just a 1 bit whether after all they have not mllM I B tomething really good. With a theme a which has baffled the s icn lists of the I world, associated with the labor and the ; Floratd Co A'.l rtpht reirTcd . I play of every race In history, Intensely J interesting as a physiological study, and : now known to have direct influence upon .mental development, it is not .surprising that the new cult has captured attention. Everything in the world seems to be right handed. Among English speaking races ninety-seven out of every hundred persons are right handed at maturity Out of every one hundred such persona, seventeen are born right handed three are born left handed and the remaining Ctgbtj are born without preference as to -i i lit r hand During early childhood the eighty ;in influenced to become strongly right handed. i Signatures of Sir Robert Baden-Powell Written ( . rt with Right and Left Hands. 1 . JA HanduTitmp; of. Lord Nelson. Above, with Right Hand ; Below, After He Lost His Right Arm. Whatever the causes, no great asset of I tbo world is s0 neglected as the average left hand This curious bit of animal mechanism is the most wonderful thing f its kind in the world, twenty-nine slender In. ins strung together so dell cately that their tender caress does not i waken the sleeping child; yet so powerful that a cleuched fist has been known to kill an o The most delicate sense of ! touch known to the animal kingdom is found In the tips of the lingers, yet the lather of the present Tsar of Russia could squeeze the ends of a uew horse-iboe horse-iboe together with his ungloved baud. The courts of the world are awnkeuing to its raluc Damages to the amount of .-.Vm i, mi- been awarded for the loss of one band, am recently a boy recovered I $5,000 for the loss of three fingers Padercwaki's left hand Is insun-d for 150.000. The left live lingers of the violinist vio-linist Kubelik are insured for S25j000. The left thumb of the man who grinds leiise band oi course -1 1, r die great- ' est telescopes of the world is estimated' i be worth $200,000 and he is not considering con-sidering any offers for its sale, either. His father's thumb brought the concern 0 fame which is world wide and orders from almost every uation in the world. Two-ba iiflediies.s is simply a lost art, say the clever folks back of the new cult. Like the pigments uf tbc ancient artists, the tempering of the Damascus blade, the delicacy of the silks of far Cathay, the Cement f the Pyramids, and a few other things we have simply forgotten how. We must get it back again. Formerly all the world was ambidextrous. ambidex-trous. Primitive man had no preference us to which band he used. The curliest implements uf war clubs, ones, hatchets, ling.-, bows arrows clearly indicate that they were used by either hand The earliest stone drawings of the Egyptians and the Chaldeans show right and left protiles. Indicating that the artists were ambidextrous. The Scythians, a people li ing in northern Europe long before the Romans came to greatness, are known to have had laws for the ivmipulsory training train-ing of both hands. Biblical references are frequent to whole tribes that were able to use- the left hand as well as if not - - .. .. . . . , n , ll4tAlf MtAf AM 4 better than the right. Some historians' even hold that the early Llebrews were' nationally left handed. The North American Indians were ambidextrous until the implements of the white man taught them ooe-handedness. Even to-day m-.st Indians can shoot as well from one shoulder as from the other. I Stanley tells of African tribes who maintain main-tain ambidexterity still, partly prompted' by the desire to prevent the loss of one hand from rendering them helpless. Clever savages' In China to-day tbe . r - . place of honor is at the left of the ln.st. which would seem to indicate that in early times the left bind was regarded with as much favor as the right Ambidexterity and Achievement. The period of the world's highest aehieve-tnentS aehieve-tnentS synchronizes with the time when men were not limited to one hand In their work, but could use both with eiual dexterity. dex-terity. The art masterpieces of the world, for whieh a .Morgan spends million, were painted by men who could wield le pent il or the brush with either hand. Tbo Architecture which is the world's standard 1 to-day was designed and built by men who I were ambidextrous. The greatest BCnlp I tors of all time w?re able to handle chisel , or hammer w ith right or left as Ihe needs of the tak impelled Philosophy, drama, pr.rtry, Joelo. oratory, ideal female benutv, perfect masculine strength. gigantic engineering aehiewuients for civic bettermentthese better-mentthese things, which are the dream of the world, were at the aenltb of their development when men taught anil practised the symmetrical employment f both hands Leonardo da Vinci, whose exquisite "Mona Lisa" has so recently put his name on the lips of the world, "a genius all but universal and a man pre-eminently great." was the greatest of till examples of ambidexterit v. Michael Angelo, "on whose head climb the crowns of the world." was another ambidextrous workman work-man in a score of difficult crafts, from delicate cheruba painted with matchless -kill to iron work revealing depths of smithy strength unsuspected In the make of an artist Amons reeont illustrious examples Sir Edwin Landseer ought to be named, for he had probably the greatest manual dexterity of any artist of the past two eenturies and be was wonderfully ambidextrous. am-bidextrous. Progress of the New Cult. The progress of the new cult is remarkable. re-markable. Japan has for many years inH-n t.iehine two-bandedness in her pub-lie pub-lie nchools and to the men of her army. The Japanese are the most remarkably ambidextrous people of modern times. The German government Is now teaching teach-ing its soldiers two-handodns. not from the mere standpoint of increasing their : 1 -JiLS Simultaneous Right and Left Hand Work of Four- Founder of Boy Scouts, Looking at ,71 Jm f " jtccn-Ycar-Old Girl After a Few Weeks' Practice. RbT Hi aWn by Hut not abuie are men right handed. Studies of the monkeys of the Loudon Zoo showed that out of t wenty-i hrce monkeys thai reached for a bit f food held equally distant from cither hand, twenty used the rigilSbaiod by preference Of parrots, sixty -six out of eighty-three took the cracker with the right claw More than this, the climbing plant which curls up a stick will SimoSI invariably turn to the right on starting the spiral round. Several historic football games have been won because clever coaches know that men will generally turn to the right at a critical moment, and their teams had been taught to expect such turn We turn a screw from left to right, so we pass eacli other, so we wind our watchea, so we write, and read, stir our batter and chnrn our butler. Old salts of the real blue water will pill their new ships back to dock if the tirst turn she makes is not from left lo right. Even the sun turns from left to right, and in that fact, perhaps, may be found explanation ot the whole curious business. manual dexterity but from tbe much lu-oadi-r one bat the training of both hands means an increase of intelligence in general and of memory in particular Sir Koliert H ideii-Powell, hero of the siege of Mafeking, founder of the Boy Scouts, one of the most distinguished of Pritlsh army leaders, has even gone so far is to say that he does not consider a man a well trained soldier miles he can mount equally well on either side of bis horse, use the sword, pistol and lance equally well with both iunda, and shoot off the left shoulder as rapidly and as ac-leuralelv ac-leuralelv as from the right. And Sir Robert himscl is a conspicuous illustration illustra-tion of his own fine theories, for he ran do all these things: 1 eside. w ben his rij;ht hand was bitten by a dog he wrote his reports and Illustrated them w;ih excellent drawings with his left hand. The English school systems include reg ular instruction in writing with the !.-ft ham' ns well as with the right, there are j regular yearly competitions in left handed Writing and drawing, and frequently it has been found that pupils become better I draughtsmCJ or penme with their left hands than they were with Ibeir right. I The same thin? has been introduced ai. . lis in large use in the public schools of the T'nited States. Philadelphia started the j fashion, for Philadelphia Is not slow in all things and writing drawing, clay modelling, wood rarvlnz are -taught for the express purpose nf developing the dexterity of the left hand Roval Two-Handers I The new CUlt lias the singular prettr of an B me sing number of roval advoeafes and exponents Qupen Victoria became a genuine enthusiast on the subject and every one of her children was tnnehtl to be ambidextrous. Th prepnt Einc George of Bngland, like his distinguished father. Kinir Edward, is conspiernnslr two-banded Qneen Maud of Norway, the Tsarina and the Queen of Spain are thoroughly ambidextrous, the Queen of, Spain being able to fene. write and embroider with the hand which SO many of us regard as quite useless. Tbe German Ger-man Emperor is also clever with his left hand although, as is well known, bis left hand and arm are not of normal! development I The tremendous success of left banded i and ambidextrous ball players has had omethin- to do, no doubt, with tbo in- teresi la the now cult, from "Home I Kun" Erank Hdker, who can bat or throw right or left handed, down or up through fl the list of Ty' Cobb, George Wilts, "Rube" Manjuard, "Josh" Devon?, Jack I Pfeister. Eddie Dank, End Tenney, Jake jl Daub. irt, Rube" Waddell, Jesse Burkett, I ' Mike" Donlin to the four youngsters ae- 9 tec ted for the new team of the "Giants," B who can bat and throw either banded, ;1 'n-.t io forget Chase, who makes doable I plays while most men are trying to think 1 of them. m There are few sports, and fewer occu- I pations, in which i. man's value is not 1 increased by ais ability .o do his work 1 with either hand. Tennis, cricket, la- 1 crose, baseball, boxing, canoeing, angling. I swimming, in all these ambidexterity is LJ decidedly ad vantage, while in some in- i door sports, such as billiards, ability to 1 use the left hand well is almost indispens- able. The writer recalls seeing an an- A pnrcntly skilled canoeist nearly lose bis 'M life on a wllu Canadian lake because he if had not learned to use the paddle with 1 one hand as well ns with the other, the f gale necessitating continued paddling on II the unfamiliar side. f? Cure for Idiocy. M But the most interesting and startling e proof of the value of ambidexterity is found in tbe reports of those who bnv S tested it among deficient and idiot chil- Ej dren. it The vital connection between the hand K aud the brain Is shown nowhere more W forcibly than In the case of feeble-minded feeble-minded children Eeeble Intellect is f accompanied by imperfect command over m the fingers, and the two are almost in- 'Invariably 'In-variably conjoined The hands of an it; Idiot child are abnormally small, on-developed, on-developed, the thumb bends in toward the f palm, the nails arc brittle and dry, tho fc. fingers short aud badly -finished. There Jfci I Is no power of resistance to pressure, no K prehension or grasping, no use whatever. The child is unable to carry out the fcv I simplest direction involving voluntary ft' I action In extreme idiocy ihc hands hang IT1 I helplessly flown from the w rists and there ff. is no power over them ith the train- ing of the hand, even to the grasping of E B sink, intelligence begin to develop; Jf when the hand begins to be the instru-mi instru-mi nt for tbe expression of the will, nor- f-mal f-mal mentality has been awakened. f . Benefit of Two Handedness. It There are over five liundreo occupa- 'P lions in which two-haudedness would n SW i t'l eftt iency and wage earn- K in- capacity, not to mention the intellec- tual benefit In uearly every profession ambidexterity adds to usefulness, and in & some !( is almost indispensable The Mi 'killed surgeon of this day must culti- " vale ability to use the left baud when IH lion require! Surgeon General A- -,L F. Brads haw, (.' P., honorary physician f io the late Kin- Edward VII., is ambi- f, dextrous in operations, and so also is Dr Hubert T Morris, the distinguished it New York surgeon and naturalist, of - bum it is ofteu jokingly remarked. H "Appendicitis? Why, he's the man that invented it." Probably do man living has performed so many operations for L this trouble and his ambidextral skill with the knife is so great that his preference as to which band to use is merely a ques- tion of ease or position and security of movement. Among the benefits which would BO erue to society from the training of the left hand equally with tbe right are the almost complete immunity from writer's i ramp, palsy, aphasia or loss of mem- I ory. leavened pulmonary troubles duo lo better writing position, great reduction of spinal curvature in the young, doubling of j the speech area of the brain, both lobrs of the brain beiDg developed symmetrically, increasing brain force and intellectuality, quickening of the entire physique, tbe I right hand attaining much greater pro- Bciency and dexterity than it could at-tain at-tain by separate, independent cultivation, t the stimulation f all the handicrafts and I the increase in interest of all sports and the kdded ufflcisncy of all armies and I |