Rationing Handshakes.

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 44, 22 February 1927, Page 3

Rationing Handshakes.

For the Duke and Duchess of York. Very few really great men carry unsheathed rapiers in the folds of their overcoats, and tho man aspiring to greatness who conceals a stiletto up his sleeve is comparatively rare. So "why, in the name of all that is loyal and true, is the medieval custom of handshaking allowed to survive ? Royalties are reduced to physical prostration through the shaking of the hand. American Presidents, in their excess of democratic feeling, have appreciably shortened their lives. Recently. Mr. ami Mrs. Baldwin each shook nearly two thousand hands at the People's Palace, in Mile End Road. This was an impressive performance, considering the time and speed, yet it was really nothing in comparison with the established world-records of kings, princes, and presidents. The Duke and Duchess of York will arrive under a threat that history will repeat itself, for just twenty-five years ago the present King and Queen, as Duke and Duchess of York, journeyed to the Commonwealth to open Parliament. At Melbourne the Duke shook 5000 loyal hands in one hour, with the result that his own hand was swollen to a prodigious size, and resembled—to quote a sympathetic chronicle of the event —a " piece of raw mutton." His son, the Prince of Wales, was destined to undergo ordeals no less unpleasant. During a part of his Canadian tour, in 1919, the Prince, then new to the game, had to carry his arm in a sling, and his forearm was so sore that ho could scarcely move it. Pain to Demonstrate Loyalty. Is all this necessary? Must we make our rulers suffer physical pain in order to demonstrate our loyalty and affection? " The nervous system of the entire body is jarred by handshaking," says a Harley iStreet specialist. "And that jar is communicated right up the arm, distorting the communicating nerves of the spine, and transmitting itself to every part of the body." "As far as I know,' , says another expert, " there is no real precaution that could be taken prior to the ordeal of r>ooo handshakes. Save for the wearing of stout gloves, I know of absolutely no real remedy." " .Skin disease of all kinds." he continued genially, "dysentery, smallpox, scarlet fever, and so on, all these, witli many similar illnesses, can be transmitted by the shake of a hand, especially if there is even the slightest abrasion through which bacilli may gain entrance."

Handshaking was one of the contributory cause* of the death of President Roosevelt, and a description of the late American President after a handshaking bout at his home at Oyster Bay was a most eloquent denunciation of the custom. "He lay back in a chair, quivering, with his inert arm outstretched upon the side of the chair." That, in short, constitutes the peril of the handshake. Queen Victoria, and before her the Georges, the Stuarts—the whole company of kings and emperors—knew nothing of this modern (scourge. It was King Edward who instituted the custom which brought joy to his loyal subjects. Since then King George, the Prince of Wales, the Duke of York. Princess Mary, all of our present P.oyal family have been willing victims. Should not the handshaking of the Duke and Duchess of York be rationed on their tour? Is it really loyal to allow them to be laid ojx-n to an ordeal which, an enterprising statistician has computed, has given the Prince of Wales 7."».000 nervous jars in the past five years?