Ambidexterity.

Te Aroha News, Volume IV, Issue 194, 12 March 1887, Page 5 (Supplement)

Ambidexterity.

A few years ago the late Charles Reade wrote an article strongly advocating ambidexterity. He claimed that under the pi esent system of teaching young children the use of their hands the left is treated almost as a useless member. He fuither claimed that the custom was utterly absurd, and that the coming generation might be so taught as to use both hands with equal skill and dexterity, so that as far as usefulness is concerned, every person might have two right hands, thereby mci easing their capacity to perform any kind of labour. A few seasons ago, a gentleman who had become an expert ambidextrist appeared in ly^euin courses throughout the country. He would write with both hands at the same time, with the right, a business letter in English, and with the left, a sentimental epihtle in French. That the cultivation ni the hitherto neglected left hand is desirable is becoming recognised, and now a number of business colleges in the country maUe left-handed penmanship one of the blanches of study. The easiest way for anyone to acquire the art is to take a sample of any good penmanship, and carefully trace every line with a dry pen or any pointed instrument held in the left hand. This, after sufficient practice, develops the proper muscle?, co that the work can finally be accomplished without the aid of a copy. President Gnrfield could write as well with his lefbhand as with his other, and Thomas Jefferson, whose right arm was paralyzed, learned to write with the other. There are numerous casos of others who have become equally expert. — Good Cheer.

It is estimated that there are in London 22 paupers to every 1,000 of the population. In 1868 the percentage was 42 to the 1,000. "We are astounded," cays an Oamaru paper, " with the knowledge that onions are imported from California and elsewhere for the use of this community — to a district possessing land of the rarest quality for the perfect growth of this common vegetable When it is mentioned that these imported onions fetched about £13 per ton wholesale, tHe neglect 1 of our farmers to cultivate a few|»ores is inexplicable, '