Beautiful Hands.

Auckland Star, Volume VII, Issue 1971, 3 June 1876, Page 5 (Supplement)

Beautiful Hands.

' Thebe are,' says the New Yohk ' Mercuey,' ' more ladies inordinately vain of their hands in New York than in any capital in Christendom,' said a famous modisto who is yearly in the habit of visiting London, Paris, Vienna, and Madrid, to the writer a few days since. 'Is this vanity well founded P1 the Mkbcttby representative asked. ' I don't deny that it is,' madatne replied. • Thero aro among New York and Brooklyn belles as sweetly pretty hands as you will find anywhere, and among girls who do not aspire to be fashionable, one can constantly see beautiful, shapely hands.

•It if? not the size of the glore that makes the hand attractive ; it is its shape ita characteristics, its softness, its delicate blue veins, its thumb and its fingers. Now, my hand has no pretensions to bo of the fairy typo. I use a glove of the ' seven' size yet it is not an unsymmetrical hand.'

It was a fair and lovely hand, adorned by a single ring—the hymeneal hoop—arid it was quite evident that the lady was proud of it, and would not have changed it even if she could. In response to a remark intended to be complimentary, she said, 'O, yes ; I could wear a 'six acd a lialf or a ' six and a quarter' with infinite ease ; but then by hand would not look so natural. Many ladies continue to squeeze their hands into 'fives' that are very little less tnan mine, but I neither cramp my hands nor my feet.'

TEE HANDS OF LADIES ABROAD. " On being interrogated respecting beautiful hands she had seen, Madame said in substance: 'In Madrid, at the regular Sunday bull-fights, you will see more pretty hands than anywhere else. The hand of the Empress Eugenic was as nearly perfect as possible. It was not as small as many hands you may see any night at Wallack's, Union Square, or Fifth Avenue Theatres ; yet in an artistic sense it was simply beautiful. As a rule one sees small hands in Paris, but they do not compare in symmetry with those of the Spanish ladies, especially the Moors. Lady Diane do Vere Beauclerc, daughter of the Duke of St. Albans, has very beautiful hands and arms. She was for quite a number of years the reigning beauty of Victoria's court. The London club gallants were enchanted with her, and the Prince of Wales, who is just one month her elder, was perfectly infatuated. They ] used to mcct —' Here Madame was summoned away and the gossipy interview came to an end. THE, BLACK-HAIRED, OR LATIN RACES, Which inhabit Spain, Italy, and France, with a scattering in the southwest of Ireland,' said the Doctor, ' are the smallhanded, tapering-fingered, artistic race of civilization. The Saxon—blue-eyed and yellow-haired —race, are distinguished ' for their large hands and their inferiority in matters, of art or eestkeitcs. W^ere the

races are mixed, as in England and America, you will perceive, if you study the fact, thai the artistic, small hand still belongs to the dark-haired women, and that larger hands prevail among blondes. There are of course exceptions; but what I have stated is the rule.'

' To what nation do you award the palm in respect to beautiful hands ?' the writer asked.

•To Spain undoubtedly; but lam not in the habit of regarding the question in this light. Tho hands of the aristocracy of any country are far superior in every point of beauty to those of the middle and lower classes. Nothing tells like blood or breeding as far as hands are concerned. In any European country the difference between tho hands of the plebeians and aristocracy is most marked ; so much so that when a girl is endowed with a pretty hand she is tho envy of all her fellows ' THE ARISTOCRATIC HAND-

In answer to tho query. 'In what particular consists the peculiar beauty of tlie aristocratic hand ?' the doctor said : ' It is difficult to describe it—color, texture, form, symmetry, plumpness or roundness—delicato veins, forms of nails aud finger-tips, and form of the hand generally, outside and inside. The lines inside may be too many, too mazy and too much intersected, and the cup of Diogenes, as it is called, may be irregular and unshapely in form ; in short, it requires an education to appreciate and understand a perfect hand, and generally when you find one you have a perfect woman.'

A charming young lady in a fashionable ladies' glove emporium was next interviewed. Sue smiled all over like a beautiful rainbow when questioned respecting ladies' hands. Her own fair hands and tapering lingers were sufficients warm the heart of an anchorite, and there were half a score of entrancing creatures around with tho prettiest and tiniest hands, purchasing gloves. One sprightly brunette, in tho bright light of youth and beauty, took a pair of microscopic ' fives.' A distracting blonde, whose cheek was woven of tho ruddy rose and the snowwhito lily, in nature's dy&s, squeezed a plumpish hand with delightful fingers into a pair of • five and a quarter/ while her ma, a generously-formed matron, became very much flushed in the fac& while annihilating the cup of Diogenes ia a pair of ' &\k and throe quartos' light brown kids. ''-FIVES.' ' Fives' are the smallest size of what are reckoned as women's glovus/ said my informant; ' but there aro many ladies, both married and single, who w?ar misses' sizes, A beautiful Jewess who patronizes this store wear a misses' ' two ' size. Oh, you never saw such a pretty little hand as she's got; it's just like a large baby's ; mine is a monster beside it, and I wear a misses' ' four.' 'What is the average size of gloves sold to ladies?' she was asked. 'At this store ' sixes,' I think ; but there are many ladies who wear gloves absurdly too small for them. There are numbers of elegantlydressed women with hands large enough for gentlemen's sizes of gloves, yet they squeeze their fingers and part of their hand into a pair of ' SEVENS AND-A-HALF,' But there are some ladies, again, who wear nothing but silk gloves, on account of the size of their hands—they prefer to wear the largest size of silk, you see, rather than admit that they have to use a gentleman's size.

An observing and experienced lady ®f Fourteenth-street said: 'I have noticed that; dark-haired, dark-eyed women have the smallest and prettiest hands. Our New York women have many of them charming hands, but not unfrequently the fingers are too short, and stunted ! 'Alas ! their hands are too delicate, I think—so delicate in fact, that, although many of their passers (^n exquisite capacity for musical instramentation, a few1 have sufficient muscular power to give shade and effect to the performances. The German and Hibernian women as a rule have large hands — often they are shapely enough, but they are too thick and fleshy. Of course hands become distorted in shape by various kinds of employment. It is not a common experience to find milliners, dressmakers and needlewomen with nice, shapely hands, while among saleswomen PRETTY HANDS ARE DECIDELLY COMMON. When you speak of really beautiful hands they are very uncommon. There are probably not more than three ladies on the New York stage to-day who possess what can be called beautiful hands; and I would not designate them —they are already too self-consciously aware of the fact. New England women, goodness knows, have slender enough hands. One almost sees through them. In point of fact, the hands of our American women are too slight and feeble, They are too ghostly white to be healthy-looking, Everybody knows what I mean by a healthy-looking band, and yet it is not so easily explained. Our women should exert their muscles more and go to bed earlier.