part of superiors in rank to their inferiors,
and an act that no true gentleman will
commit. There is no reason why it should
be considered more discourteous than it
would be to kiss the left cheek instead
of the right; but, doubtless, the custom
that makes the right hand imperative
in all sincere salutation dates from those
early times when hand-shaking first began;
and the hand that shook or was shaken
in friendship was of necessity weaponless.
The poor left hand that one would
think ought to be of as much value and
strength as the right, just as the left
foot or leg is as strong as the right foot or
leg, because they are both used equally, has
fallen into disrepute, as well as into
comparative disuse, until it has become an
accepted phrase to say of any proceeding
that is inauspicious, artful, sly, or secretly
malicious, that it is "sinister"—that is, left-
handed.

To shake hands without removing the
glove is an act of discourtesy, which, if
unintentional and thoughtless, requires
an apology for the hurry or inadvertence
which led to it. This idea would also
seem to be an occult remnant of the old
notion that the glove might conceal a
weapon. Hence true courtesy and friendship
required that the hand should be
naked as a proof of bonâ fides.

To refuse pointedly to shake hands with
one who offers you the opportunity in a
friendly manner amounts to a declaration
of hostility. And after a quarrel—or act
of open hostility—the acceptance of the
hand offered is alike the sign and the
ratification of peace.

The nations of continental Europe are
scarcely so much addicted to hand-shaking
as the English, while the English in this
respect are far less demonstrative and
apparently cordial than the Americans, who
shake hands with one another from morning
to night, if even the slightest excuse or
opportunity arises. "Since my arrival in the
United States," wrote the late Mr. Smith
O'Brien, "I have been surrounded by
crowds of well-wishers, whose greatest
desire seemed to be to shake hands with
me. In Ireland this practice does not
prevail, but here it seems to be a universal
custom." All travellers are equally struck
with the undue prevalence of this custom,
as they cannot fail to be after they have
been a few days in the country. The
stranger, if of any eminence or renown, is
often introduced to forty or fifty people in
a string, and to omit to shake hands with
any one of them would be an act of
disrespect. And even the Irish and German
waiters at the great hotels expect you to
shake hands with them, on your second
arrival, if they happen to remember your
face or name, or have received a gratuity at
your hands for their previous services or
attentions.

One of the greatest penalties attached
to the by no means enviable office of president,
is the stupendous amount of hand-
shaking which that functionary has to
undergo. The late good-natured President
Lincoln was a serious sufferer, though it
must be confessed that he often took his
revenge and gave some too importunate
hand-shakers such squeezes of his powerful
grasp as made them remember him
with pain for a few hours after the
infliction of his cordiality. Both he and
other occupants of his uneasy and thankless
office have, on New Year's Day
especially, and on many other occasions, to
undergo an amount of hand-shaking,
sufficient almost to wrench the arm off,
or at least to make it ache for a fortnight
afterwards. Five or six thousand people
of all ranks and classes of men, from
the polite European ambassadors and
diplomatic agents at Washington, and the
legislators, bankers, merchants, lawyers,
newspaper editors and reporters, the
military and naval officers, down to the
common soldiers and sailors, and, lower
still, down to the very roughs of the
street, who are all admitted without the
intervention of a Gold Stick or any other
kind of stick, or a Black or a White Rod,
or any kind of usher or introduction, and
in any costume they please, even in that of
the navvy with his heavy boots and his
working jacket, or the sweep with the soot
still on his face (though it must be admitted
as a rule that the rowdies, the sweeps, and
the navvies, put on their best clothes on
such great occasions) pass through the
reception hall, each of them expecting to
shake hands with the chief magistrate.

I have nothing to say against hand-
shaking. It is pleasant to touch the hand
of an honest man or woman, and to be on
such terms of acquaintanceship with either
of these masterpieces of creation, as to
justify you in the thought that you are
their equal, and that a moral sympathy
may flow from you to them, or from them
to you. Even to grasp the paw of an
honest and intelligent dog, who holds it up
for you to shake, on being asked to do so,
is something. For the dog, unlike some