Blinds All Round.

Southland Times, Issue 9384, 25 November 1886, Page 4

Blinds All Round.

-„'i.". r . .•■■•'.'-- ~- "-■.". ♦ -'. ~ ■■." ■' ■■ #and»WTeal k»bit», occupations, trades* iaysawriterin Oassell's Family Magazine* A crop of them jriseiiatthe thpnght, like the ihow thrust up frpm/a crowd in honour of, a candidatt after an election Bpeech. There is the carpenter's, with the broad thumb, and those, of the fraternity o£ floar, ingrained, meily «u<l 'white j tie mntiiuian I*,1 *, with the powerful wristand the fingers delicate, sen»i« - kit and agile/to the last degree ;; the hand of the seamstress, with, an honourable little Mt of nutmeg-grater on the forefinger that works^ao har.d,» , of ..the : scientific man, who lectures to explain mysteries to lower mortals, and whose exactitude of touch is the image of his mental precision, while the nervbns stretch of his fingers corresponds with liia tension, of mind. The sieight-01-baod profesior is a man of lonp fingers. ' A conjuror with a slow and chubby hand would betray the awful secrets of tbe plom pudding that is taken from the 4«?tk of your best hati iiut beside the character and trade, the bands tell the age. Soft and round, the baby's pair of ptiffiballs, with their fat -wrists deeply-ridged j appear as if they never can do anything in this world. Yet tbe girl s hand will b"ecdrde r ft treasure, and the boys hand will battle for life and with his fellow lherr for the mastery, it is appalling to think" of what those helpless . little puff-balls fcftve before them, J Alter the first 'dimples they become the inky, haadji of .school; then the awkward 'Sands - that : don't know what to do with themselves. Years pass, the boy's hand Cewe» to grumble at gloves — yes, hp wears them in extravagant feestuiess, {a coaiparisoit as his collars grow upward and his shea tighten within an. inch of hia life. Tbe reault of these phenomena is that a ring begin* to shine with charming strangeness on another bsnd, that seemed a child's- but yester"day. The young wife teils b/ her hands that it is not long.since the wedding, because she cannot let that'new ring alone, but twJßt«_ it around for the novelty, and admires it with an unconscious knack of caressing ,it in idle moments- Ber dimples disappear, as the children gather to make a home circle ; it is the hand of tbe woman now with its very framework traceable. Dimples, bonfs, and wrinkles mark the three stages of life's progress. With tbe wrinkled stage the steadiness of youth often remains in resolute characters. When the Duke of Wellington was a very old man he could still fill a glass of water the lust possible drop and hold it up steadily brimful. The aelpful bands keep their youthful activity, too, far into the withering age. And in nobly-loviDg natures there is a sort of inc. mortality of youth ; the warmth ot nffection has given more than a royal prerogative ; the hand is beautiful always to the eyes that know it familiarly. The latter years only stamp it with the impress of a longer paat of teaderntss and bounty, It is not the ' old ' hand but the ' dear ' hand, and it never grows older, but only more dear. He who doubts the truth of this last mystery has not yet foemd out that bands as well as hearts have a peculiar place in our knowledge and love of one another*