Finger Nails and Handwritings.

Woodville Examiner, Volume 3, Issue 284, 17 September 1886, Page 1 (Supplement)

Finger Nails and Handwritings.

Since the so-called science of reading character by the handwriting has come in it is even said that the care taken of the nails affects the handwriting. The long, almondshaped nail is a great support to the middle finger, which guides the pen. One can hardly imagine a person with short, stubby finger nails, which are covered with skin, writing the long, graceful English hand which so delights the recipient of the note from a grande dame , It is said that poets and people with imagination are apt to have long, taper fingers and beautiful finger nails. They have a handwriting in which the long up-strokes and down-strokes cut into the lines above and beneath them. The heads of their capital letters are large. This handwriting shows ardour and impulse. When it has a markedly downward movement, this handwriting shows a tendency to melancholy. An aptitude for criticism is shown amongst people who bite their nails. They are cynical and severe, uncharitable and bitter. They write a small, cramped, and illegible hand. However, there maybe goodnatured critics, men with versatility of comprehension. They would have small but well-shaped nails, and their handwriting would be somewhat angular, showing penetration and finesse. The nails of a musician are, of course, to be observed, although the piano sometimes injures them. The great musicians have a sloping handwriting. There is, however, an eccentricity peculiar to the handwriting of executive musicians, as witnessed in that of Beethoven. The finger nails of mathematicians are apt to be square and not beautiful. The handwriting of such persons shows a quiet movement of the pen. The lines are straight with the paper, the up-strokes and down-strokes are short, while the capitals are small and angular. Diplomacy has a long supple hand, and a long, beautifully-kept, slender finger nail. But the handwriting of a diplomatist is not apt to be clear ; it always looks like a snake gliding away. Certain inflexible natures express themselves both by finger nails and by the handwriting—both are blunt and determined. The Chinese have such long finger nails that one might almost write with the ends of them. The tenacity of the Chinese nail, which does not break, shows that they have more lime in their bones than we of a different race. At one time, when good Queen Anne bit her finger nails, it was the fashion for all the English aristocracy to bite theirs, and in those days the English finger nail was not what it is now. Fashion exerts potent influence oa man, savage or civilised.