ELOQUENT MANNERISMS

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLVI, Issue 2683, 15 January 1924, Page 1

ELOQUENT MANNERISMS

There are certain habitual gestures that are fairly safe guides to character. A handshake, a look in the eyes, can he eloquent exponents of the mind that prompts them. You know the limp handshake that makes your own grip feel like a- social solecism. Instinctively it puts you “off”: and your instinct is right. Sncli a type has little interest iii other people. It would he folly indeed to count on help from such a source in time of trouble, if that help entailed ;my personal inconvenience or expense. This spineless handshake is equally expressive of lack of mental vitality; a dearth of originality or initiative; a general colourlessness of attitude. The heart behind such n handshake never glows with real human kindliness or warm appreciation of human qualities. Another eloquent mannerism is the look in the eye* the poise of the head. There i> the unmistakable weighing-up look: that narrowing of the eyes that says beyond all oonbi : “T am taking stock of you right now!” —-and reveals the cautious temperament. Not necessarily selfish or aloof. hut lacking the spontaneous warmth and sympathy of the type that looks von straight in the eyes, silently expressing sympathy, goodwill, unfeigned interest. And then that steady, responsive incalculating look is accompanied by another pretty mannerism—a birdiike droo pof the head to one side. You may he sure that sympathy is the long suit of such a type. There are other mannerisms that are scarcely less revealing. The swinging arm in walking demonstrates almost invariably the rather aggressive, temperament that likes its own way, and generally manages to get it. The woman who holds

her handbag close up against her — or it may he a book —is reserved and a little shy ; not fond of excitement or social gaiety.

There is the shuffling walk that betrays inherent laziness and unreliability, and there is (he contrasting index of (lie firm, well-lif-ted foot that reveals purposefulness and the ability to overcome difficulties.

The Ivpe that “looks down its nose at you, under the mistaken impression that such an attitude expresses dignity, is the superlatively conceited and frequently brainless type. Really clever people never adopt -such a pose; they are too interested even in the most commonplace types, and see goodness and beauty everywhere. A Wanganui minister tells a good story of how on one occasion he was on a visit to Auckland, and be decided to try out the disposition of tlie congregation towards strangers, particularly if they did not happen to be well dressed. He disguised himself as a swagger, and casually wandered into the porch just before the service was about to commence. Here lie was received with a stony stare by members of the male persuasion, who were giving out the hymn hooks. He watched the well-dressed adherents pass in. and no one offered to show him a seat. At last lie entered the church, and when the first hymn was announced he said to a lady in the same seat. “Would you mind letting me have a look at your hymn, mum.” Mum was not having any rubbing shoulders with a swagger, and she shuffled along the -.eat as far as she could go without tumbling off the end. The minister adopted the same disguise at a Sydney church, and was at once escorted to a seat and made very welcome. In addition. the preacher came lo him after the service and shook hands, and remarked how glad he was to see the swagger at church.

The fact that Mr Howard Carter —who succeeded the late Lord Carnarvon, as leader of the opening of the tomb of Tutankhamen —has now been stricken with illness, will, no doubt, be seized on by the superstitious as confirmation of the working of the curse of the Pharaohs on desecrators of their tombs. This belief may be strengthened by tlie fact, that “the. Father of History,” Herodotis, states that “according to tlie Egyptian belief, the soul passed into the body of some other animal, then brought forth; and that, after making the circuit of the bodies of beasts, birds, and fishes, for a i»eriod of three thousand years it again became an inhabitant of the human body.” It is about 3,000 years since Tutankhamen's body was mummified and placed in the sarcophagus, for which Lord Carnarvon and Air Carter searched.