LEFT-HANDEDNESS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21251, 3 August 1932, Page 15

LEFT-HANDEDNESS

Sir I read Professor Fitt's remarks on the subject of left-handed people and I haven't stopped laughing yet. However, ■ ns I am the mother of a small boy so 1 markedly left-handed that we noticed it when ho was two months old, my laughter must be the hysteria of a broken heart. As my son, now seven years old. is above tho average in height and . phvsique, and his teacher—poor, deluded woman—has alwavs assured me that he is particularly . bright mentally, you can imagine what a dreadful blow Professor Fitt's statements have been to me. But [ lam not alone in my misery! In our town , is a small school of 20-odd children, five of whom are left-handed. A greater pro- , portion of the population must be feebleminded than is generally realised, and I had always considered these five children compared moro than favourably .both in physique and in ability with their normal companions. However, I cannot un- [ derstand why the left-handed men of this , generation do not appear to be either unbalanced, physically weak or mentallj feeble. Three distinguished New Zealanders, friends of my husband, all lefthanded, occur to my mind. One is an eminent surgeon, a good all-round athlete, ! who uses his left hsnd for operating and ' who is an authority on one branch of his work in particular; another is a Supreme Court Judge, a tall, broad-shouldered man, who writes a very good hand in spile of h : s affliction; tho third is a wellknown Chrislchurch lawyer, also a good athlete. I am sure any one of your readers could also pick out from among his personal acquaintances three or moro lefthanded people of marked ability, who are not weaklings either. Ihen, too, what of .C. T. Macartney and Clem. Hill, lefthanded cricko'sirs, whose names are house--3 hold words' There didn't appear to be 2 anything tho matter with them physically. 3 A Distracted Mother. Sir,—l am left-hnnded. My parents tried without success to alter that. At school ■ I was a right-handed batsman and a left--5 handed bowler. My bowling was conJ sidered good. Later, as a telegraph operator, I used both hands to transmit, being faster with the left. I am a right-handed penman. Two left-handed penmen I knew of, whose script was copper-plate. Willi hammer, chisel and tools I am aitibidexo trous. History is full of jibes at the left . hand. For instance, "a la main gauche." Anyhow, this writer has no "inferiority complex," and, despite a so called disability, .is feeling mentally and physically e Fitl—l am of Irish extraction and in my a youth bore—and survived—the nick-name The Kittagh.