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September 27,1586.] THE LEADEB, 927
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KISSING HANDS. The Mayor of Southampton ...
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THE CHOLERA AT MADEIBA. Tbte accounts we...
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^iT^ ttlVtr ((FnnnAt VL^jHll- ViUUlimi-U ——?
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[IN THIS DF.IUHTMKNT, AS AM, OPINION'S, ...
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WHERE IS AMrillON ? (To tho Editor of th...
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BOOKSELLERS' ADULTERATIONS. {To the Edit...
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Transcript
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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September 27,1586.] The Leadeb, 927
September 27 , 1586 . ] THE LEADEB , 927
Kissing Hands. The Mayor Of Southampton ...
KISSING HANDS . The Mayor of Southampton kissed ( or was supposed to kiss ) the hand of the Queen of Oude . There have been malicious hints that the feature thus saluted , belonged to a Yahoo of Malabar , in the retinue of h-er throneless Majesty . The Mayor had not studied under M . * D'AitPE ] sra ? raNY , and was , consequently , unable to satisfy himself whether the band contained the real cold blood of an Oriental
queen , or was no more than the extremity of a slave . But others may profit by the new science , Chirognomy , the successor of Chiromancy . To electors , civil service examiners , suitors of all kinds , masters in want of ser-Tants , parents doubtful as to the capacities of their sons , parties in the House of Commons : suspicious of their leaders , this art is recommended . It is the floAv of M . d '
Abpen'tigirr's soul , M . : d'Abpe ^ tignt not hesitating to pass beyond the "bounds of ehironiantic divination practised by philosophers in all ages from Plato to Mademoiselle Lenorm-Otd . lingers , iadeed , are indices , in a new sense . Supple and elastic fingers , that bend easily backwards , are proofs of sagacity , of readiness , of an inquiring disposition , such as Excise officers should possess . Pingers
illarranged arid irregular ,. belongto hair-brained babblers , men without power or spirit , but capable of lampooning . Thick hands with fleshy fingers , indicate avarice ; short and thick fingers , cruelty ; nevertheless , beware of fingers long and delicate , for these belong to kidnappers , sharpers , and diplomatists ! Notice , also , that men who keep their thumbs habitually hidden under their fingers , are of a sordid disposition . . ' : ¦ ?
M . DAitPENTiGNY lias critics , but they are lenient . Chirognomy , they admit , is a less ostentatious' science than Physiognomy , or Phrenology •¦; it would by no means have satisfied G-Aiii or Lava-ter . Tefc the hand , as the instrument ; of out intelligence , is a very emphatic feature ; the hand of a poet could not possibly resemble that of a metaphysician , or that of a dreamer the hand of an experimentalist . It depends upon the palm of your hand whether you love like Don Juan , and eat like Brilla . t-Sa . taiun , or whether you
love like Louis XV ., and cat like Garga .: nttta . So , according to the JVational , your knuckles decide whether you will be a Blave of fancy , of seutimenb , of speculation ; whether you will be a synthetical or an analytical man , a reaaonor , or a writer of verse ; at all events , if you have smooth knuckles , you will go to the hospital . As to the ends of the fingers , they may he spatular , square , or conical . KrsmoD , CnitisTOPiiiut Columbus , and Casanova had smooth fingera , with spatular ends ; Vatjcanson's and Jacqxtabd ' slingers ,
though spatular , were rough , as were those of Vauban , Carnot , Cohorn " , and Aeago ; the capacities for all sciences , mechanics , statistics , dynamics , navigation , civil , military , and naval architecture and strategy are intimately dependent on the form of the liancL ISTor are square-topped fingers to be disdained . They belong to the professors of moral , political , social , and philosophic science , and of didactic , analytical , and
dramatic verse , grammar , language , logic , and geometry . To them are attributable all theories and ideas ranging beneath the zenith of poetry . Abistotj / js ' s fingers were of this quality . Nations in which these fingers prevail are more polite , simple , and elegant than spatular-fingered peoples . Thus , suggests M . d ' Abpentignt , tho Trench have the square , the English the spatular form . Largo hands love detail ; lesser hands are synoptical ; small hands synthetic .
But tho prido of tho hand is tho thumb . In default of all other evidence , said Newton , my thumb convinces me of the existence of God .
Neither an animal nor a born adiot possesses a thumb ; for that winch seems a thumb in the monkey , is only a talon ; children begin to use their thumbs and their intellects at the same time ; the horrors of epilepsy begin with a contraction of the thumb . Galileo , Descabtes , jSTewton " , Liebnitz , Fotjbieb , St . Simon , had large thumbs . The statue of Voxtaibe shows that his thumbs were
enormous . The people of Corsica and Britanny , fierce , resolute , powerful , are all Voetaikes in this respect ; yet hands that are delicately developed and soft deserve the residuary respect of the reader ' s . mind . If a large hard hand modelled the sculptures of Michael Aetgkelo , hands soft and smooth modelled those of Peadieb and Canota . The Greeks , who had large hands , constructed only petty states , and erected medioci * e monuments , while the Pyramids were built by the smallhanded Egyptians .
At the next general election , since pledges are not to be given , and promises not to be trusted , let us follow M . D'Arpentigite ' s advice and cry " Show us your hands ! " But we might simplify the test , and not insist upon the hands of the candidates being large or small , so that they be clean !
The Cholera At Madeiba. Tbte Accounts We...
THE CHOLERA AT MADEIBA . Tbte accounts we read , of the plague at Athens , at Florence , and at London , seem to have been almost paralleled by -the narratives recently published of the cholera at Madeira - From the middle of- July to the end of August , a pestilence of a most appalling kind raged in that beautiful island which has rescued from death many who have sought its shores when far gone in consumption ; thousands died with a suddenness that baffled all attempts at rescue ; the medical men speedily fell beneath the poison which '' hung in the sick air ;" the island -was left without succour and with a very insufficient supply of drugs ; and a panic ensued , which induced all those to fly- who had strength to move , or -who were not induced to remain by feelings of humanity . In three weeks , there were 5000 eases and 1500 deaths in a population of 100 , 000 , and 116 deaths in one day in Funchal alone , a town of 16 , 000 , where the sum total is calculat ed to Lave been eight times as many as the deaths from cholera in London in 1849 . Persons attacked generally dropped down and expired instantl y . -Business came to a complete stop ; and the consequence is now being felt in an absolute want of provisions . A large amount of drugs hiis already "been sent out from England 5 but , now that the disease is over , subscriptions for the purchase of food are more wanted . A list has therefore been opened by the Rev . Mr . D'Orsay , one of . the chaplains at Funchal , from wliom we derive the foregoing particulars , and wlio thus indicates another cause of distress : —
" Tho landed proprietors aro almost entirely ruined by the failure of the vines since 1851 ; and the English merchants , formerly wealthy and always generous , are unable to do what they wish , frorr ^ the cessation of the wine trade , caused by & popular error in England , that , becauso the crops have failed , the wine is not to be had . " Subscriptions will be received by Messrs . Prescott and Co . ; Messrs . Ransom and Co . ; and Charles Phelps , Esq ., Montague-place , Russellsquare .
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[In This Df.Iuhtmknt, As Am, Opinion's, ...
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Where Is Amrillon ? (To Tho Editor Of Th...
WHERE IS AMrillON ? ( To tho Editor of the Lender . ') Sib , —I am sorry to trouble you a second time on a personal matter . Some weeks ago , in reviewing my Suhnljnne Kingdom , tho Daily News mado a great point of a fnut which it nasumed to havo discovered , namely , that for some sinister motivo I had invented n place in Savoy , rtnd called it Amphion . Perhaps it meant to infer that I knew nothing of the country . However this may be , although I at once stated whore information might be got , I find that a gentloinan on his way out to Piedmont in connexion with that journal , has returned to tho charge , taken evidence on the matter , and finds himself entitled to inform mo that what I mean by Amphion is no other
than Evian . I beg his pardon . There is a difference in the result of our inquiries , which may arise from the circumstance that one of us is imperfectly acquainted with the language in which they must be made . Amphibia is no t Evian , any more than Savoy is Piedmont . I translate from a guide-book , published in 1855 , at Chambery , hy M . Gabriel Morfcillet : — " Amphion ( one hour and five minutes from Thenon ) . On . leaving Thenon , the traveller proceeds towards the Dranse , crosses on abridge of twenty
arches . . . . . He then arrives at Amphion , the cold ferruginous waters of which , after having enjoyed a great reputation towards the end of tlie last century , had fallen into complete neglect . They have now been revived in a brilliant manner . The source arises from the ground near the lake , under a shed . Near at hand is an elegant Casino , which attracts numerous visitors , and from the terrace of which an admirable view may be obtained of the Canton de Vaud and the lake , along the borders of which the traveller proceeds to " Evian ( distant forty-five minutes ) . & c . "
It may be that the Daily News relies for information on old gentlemen who have not been lucid since the beginning of this century , when the waters of Amphion had indeed been forgotten . I try to learn from younger sources . The animus of all this petty carping tending to diminish the authority of more important allegations is obvious enough . I have told the truth about Piedmont , without caring whether it would please this party at home , or that coterie in Turin ; and I have told it in a language so measured , and with such careful criticism of facts , thai , although most English reviewers have been ready to contradict me in general terms—because my etatements do not agree with their unfounded prejudices—yet no one has ventured to point out any flaws , save one or two misprints , and this important geographical delinquency of the invention of Amphion !
I have just received a letter from Piedmont containing some words which . I copy without hesitation , because they bestow the praise which I wrote to earn . After alluding to some statements which , " from his point of view , " he would not have published , the writer continues : —" But after all , truth will always be a great and respectable thing . The English press , moreover , has hitherto treated us like children who are put to sleep by bonbons and caresses . You havo treated us as men . I thank you . " I feel persuaded that I shall have done better service to the cause of liberty in Italy by laying bare the obstacles that have to be overcome , and by
forestalling , as it were , the fatal surprise which always seizes the public in revolutionary times , when the personages it has been be-paragraphed into favouring suddenly disappear to make way for new , and therefore hateful , faces—it is doing better service , I say , to perform this preliminary work , than to go on constructing nauseous sentences of general encouragement , or to stain the English public with praises of the aristocratic inabilities or dishonesties who are now engaged in a foolish conspiracy to take advantage of the movement which has begun against their will , and which wants neither their praise nor their assistance .
The virtuous and intelligent Daniel Manin is endeavouring to act on public opinion , in Italy from Paris . Why is he not in Turin ? Because in Turin he would be called a passimo suggetto , and would be hurled into a corner by men who pretend to a monopoly of Italian patriotism , because they have valuable estates and worthless titles . I am , Sir , your obedient servant , Bavle St . John .
Booksellers' Adulterations. {To The Edit...
BOOKSELLERS' ADULTERATIONS . { To the Editor of the Leader . ') Sir , —You state , in a paragraph headed " American Bookselling Adulteration , " that < l Dr . Spiers has written to tho Times , complaining that in an American edition of his General French and'English Dictionary the name of another gentleman is coupled with his own on tho title-page . " This is certainly one of tho grievances of which I complained . But the great grievance which roused my indignation and induced mo to appeal to public opinion through tho medium of your columns was , not that Mr . Appleton of New York had coupled another gentleman ' s name with mine on my book , which is tolerably unfair , but that ho had put my name to a dictionary I havo not written ; bo that , not content with adding' another man ' s name to my book , forsooth , ho must add my namo to another man s book . This I consider to be an act of signal bad faith , a fraud on tho reader , the author , and the public at large—a . nefarious transaction unworthy of respectable publishers , a . nd prejudicial to the whole republic of letters . It is , I trust , a novel grievance . Public animadversion on it would precludo the possibility of nil emulation of the deed . I have the honour to be , Sir , Your obedient servant , A . Spiers . 13 , Glouccstcr-placo .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 27, 1856, page 15, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_27091856/page/15/
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