FIDGETS.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3690, 6 May 1884, Page 4

FIDGETS.

When the mind is at work, and the body I might be at rust, that unruly fieshly portion of our being will often decline to take a full advantage of its opportunity. The mind offers its co-mate a holiday, of which it will only partially avail itself. Instead of resting, it makes a series of movements for which there is no name, save that vulgar one of " the iidge ts." Our members seem on these occasions to play the part of servants waiting in tho antechamber until orders shall bo issued. Having nothing to to do for their masto?, they indulge in pranks of their own devising, in impatient motions, in stretching their arms, and throwing out their legs. It is questionable whether aayone lias a body so well controlled or so placid as not to assert itself in "fidgets" of some kind or another; but there are of course many grades of fidgetiness, corresponding with the many varieties of character and nervous temperament. At the one end are those unfortunate people whose constant movements almost constitute a disease, and who furnish our comic actors with a deal of mh'th-provokiug '" business." At the other are the well-balanced folk, with slow pulses, who believe themselves to be free from any nervous weakness, but whoso friends are aware of certain habitual "fidgets," of which they themselves are j unconscious. Yet, however general these odd demonstrations of the body may be, we have not in these western lands made any special provision for them. This touch of refinement is left for tho east and wo are told that in parts of China the merchants provide themselves with small balls which they rub and roll one over another in their fingers, and that the Turks are fond of carrying glass beads in their hands for a similar purpose. We commend the idea to some tradesman of enterprise. Authors while thinking will toy with a quill or tho less noble steel pen, poke their features with it, or twirl it round, between their lingers. Certain eminent writers have gone so far as to say that the act of composition was impossible or extremely difficult for them, unless this magic talisman was in their hands. Others will stroke their chins or their beards solemnly; a gesture that seems to fit well with the conception of a pompous sentence. The poet, while pausing to hunt for an elusive rhyme, will work an imaginary treadmill with his foot. Another aid to meditation is tho rumpling of the hair into a terrific nimbus, or a "boundless convexity of frizz." Since genius has taken to having its hair cut, the effects of this trick are less amazing. A button is an invaluable charm for some thinkers, and tho rapidity and intensity of its oscillations varies with tho difficulties of tho problems they have set themselves. Some will contemplate by tho fire, poker in hand, now caving fiery volleys in and now gently toppling some black crag into the crater below. Hugh Miller, while in the throes of composition, would stalk round his room brandishing - a poker. In that rougher America which has nearly passed away, the act of whittling a stick was found propitious to thought, and was equally in favor with a steady motion of the jaw, which has never spread much beyond seafaring circles in this country. When we come out of tho study, and out of solitude into home life, and business life, itnd social life, we still find '' fidgets '' very rife, although they are subdued and modified by tho laws of politeness. Tho intervals of conversation, which are intervals of reflection, tire often enough. filled up by " fidgets." One man will play "with his watch-chain ; another will open and shut his eyes in a mechanical manner, or draw out the ends of his moustache. The old-fashioned bunch of seals was an invaluable resource, for which we have no efficient substitute. The snuff - box, too, is well nigh lost, with all the opportunities it gave for opening and shutting it, and playing on its lid. Gibbon, 'while relating an anecdote, would hold a pinch of snuff between his finger and thumb. When he came to the jsoint of his story the suull' was invariably dropped. Button-holing or twisting the buttons of other people would scarcely bo tolerated now, but they were common enough fidgets in a bygone clay. A correspondent of the " Guardiau " says that certain coffee-house politic-inns compel him to have a dozen lit least of spare buttons with every suit. At Will's, however, and others of the most eminent eolt'ee-houses " you may hear and be heard, and be not a button the worse for it; while about the Temple you may harangue for about two buttons a day, and many times for less." An unnecessary wiping of the spectacles is not uncommon now among professional men, and Judges will make a kind of mill of their two thumbs while listening to the eloquence of counsel. Eveu women have their '.'fidgets," but these are usually of a more graceful charactor than the fidgets of men. Tho management of the fan supplies them with one resource, and a very charming one to boot. Nor are their toyings with a bracelet or the clustered treasures of the chatelaine by any means unpleasing. It is a charge which may be indignantly denied, but is it not possible that the needlework and the knitting that are constantly in some ladies' fingers may often bo little more than instruments for the "fidgets," and that tho very acts of stitching and knitting may sometimes come under that heading with propriety ?—Globe.