CIGARETTE PAPERS.

Southland Times, Issue 21576, 14 December 1931, Page 8

CIGARETTE PAPERS.

SHAKING HANDS. Returning to England after a long sojourn abroad, an experienced travc-ller has raised the standard of revolt against shaking hands. Kissing is attacked as unhygienic—though why anyone should worry about the hygiene of kissing, the cynic who has seen all its other dangers still finds puzzling—and hand-shaking has to stand a similar assault. The traveller, his arm weary, perhaps, declares he cannot see why we should exchange perspiration m order to express our feelings. The handshake is an anachronism now that we no longer carry swords and daggers—you could not draw suddenly if your friend held your right hand and you held his in case he was no more to be trusted than you—but the difficulty is the discovery of an adequate substitute. In Chicago, of course, you raise your hands to the ceiling, but that gesture would be understood in few other eountri-t The nod of the head would develop into a bow, and that might be useful m cases of obesity, and the bow would require the elevation of the hat, which in cold weather is not always desirable. Besides to be accomplished gracefully this salute must be done with, a hat fitting easily on the head, and that would introduce a new trouble, particularly in a windy place like Wellington. But the chief objection to nodding, whether the “impudent, off-hand” the criminal’s to Pooh-Bah was none of, or thoroughly deferential, and to bowing is that both acts are distant. Hand shaking is intimate and it is a guide to character. You can “feel” a man in the way he grips your hand, but at most you can tell what he thinks of you in his nod or his bending. We do raise our hats, but as a distant salutation. Can you imagine two British mates meeting, stopping and raising their hats, or clicking their heels and bobbing? As a ceremonial, of course; but not as a gesture of friendliness. The exchanging of perspiration may be unhygienic, but it is preferable to male kissing, and will last longer, because shaking hands has brought far less trouble to man than osculation. —CRITICUS.”