The Good Old-Fashioned Hand-Shake

— Is it really a thing of the past? Will it some time be as obsolete as the curtsy with which our grandmothers greeted the beaux of their day, or the kiss that the gallant impressed on the fragile hand that he raised so respectfully to his lips? Or — what is perhaps a better comparison, since these gracious customs rose from over-refinement, while the cordial, whole-souled hand-shake has been a thing of the heart —will it some day find itself as out of fashion as the kiss with which our mothers greeted each other, square on the mouth, direct, and often resounding? Who was the first woman who was brave enough to slide her cheek coyly and coldly into the track of the approaching lips ? It could not have been Eve, for there was no other woman to kiss, except possibly Lilith, and the relations there were somewhat strained, even for kissing. But somewhere, some time, there was a first woman who thus met the proffered kiss, and somewhere was a first woman who was thus repulsed, and whose soul froze into righteous determination to try the same thing on the next woman she met: and thus was sealed the fate of the kiss on the mouth. We understand that the custom still persists to a certain extent among lovers, but we have fears that even there it will not long survive. Think of the offense against the laws of hygiene ! What fell microbes of disease may not flit between them in the kiss that plights their vows !

No, the good old-fashioned kiss has gone; the good old-fashioned hand-shake is going, even while I write may be gone. It is still occasionally met with. Your country cousin comes to town. She does not understand the artistic crook of interrogation in which your hand attempts to approach hers. She grasps the curving fingers and straightens them in a loving squeeze. You sigh, and fancy that the art was lost upon her? Not at all. Wait until she reaches home. See her at the next church “sociable;” note the condescending curve of her small figure as it bends in greeting; observe the digital hook with which she draws in each unwary and disconcerted comer. And so the evil communication spreads until the whole country has felt its devastating touch.

Some people are bound to suffer more than others from this social change. Be merciful unto them, ye powers that be. The man who for long years has laid his fishlike fingers confidingly in yours has come upon an evil day. His torpid sensibilities are doomed to daily shocks. Be gentle with him. Woo him, win him, out of his limp straightness in that first difficult curve, doubly difficult for him. And the whole-hearted, cordial, pumplike man is destined to meet many a setback before it dawns on his stupid, blundering soul that something is wrong. To him a hand-shake is a hand-shake. He will be slow to understand these fine distinctions between the old and the new ; to comprehend that the old hand-shake was “ physical “ in its nature; that the new one, given as it is from the level of the heart, is “soulful, spiritual.” Bear with him. He will comprehend in time. In time we shall all comprehend and acquiesce, and the good old fashion will be no more.