TELL-TALE HANDWRITING.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 6, Issue 1754, 6 August 1884, Page 2

TELL-TALE HANDWRITING.

Many people laugh at what is cjp "graphtomancy," or the art characters by hand-writing; and }W all acknowledge that Hand-writing does indicate something. Everyone allows a difference between a man's and a woman s hand; we hear people speak of a vulgar hand, a gentlemanly hand, a clerlcy hand, ifec. "I had once," says Archbishop Whately, "a remarkable proof that handwriting is sometimes, at least, an index to character. I had a pupil at Oxford whom I liked in most respects greatly ; there was but one th:ng about him which seriously dissatisfied me, and that, us I often told him, was his handwriting—it was not bad as writing; but it had a mean, shuffling character in it .which always inspired me with a feeling of suspicion. " While he remained at Oxford I saw nothing to justify this suspicion iJ'Ut a transaction in which he wasrasrwards engaged, ami in whech Sw more of his character than I had done before, convinced me that the writ.nrau had convinced me truly. But I kne\r of a more curious case, in which acele- ' brated ''graphtomancer" was able to judge character more correctly by handwriting than he had been able to do by personal observation. Ho was on a visit at a friend's house, where anion" other guests, he met a lady whose manners and conversation greatly struck him, for whom ha concieved a strong friendship, based on the esteem he felt for her as a sengulai'ly truthful, pureminded, and single-hearted woman. ' The lady of the house, who knew her real character to be quite the reverse of what she seemed, was curious to know whether Mr —. would be able to discover this by her handwriting. Accordingly, she procured a slip of this lady's writing (having ascertained he had never seen it) and gave it him one evening as the handwriting of a friend of hers whose, character she wished him to decipher. His usual habit when he undertook to Bxercise this power,.was to take a slip, af a letter, cut down lengthwise aot to show any sentences, to his wsfL it night, and to bring it down with bis judgment in writing the next, morning," "On this occasion, when the partywere seated at the breakfast table, the, lady whose writing he had unconscN jusly been examining, made some )bservation which particularly struck as seeming to betoken a very loblc and truthful character. He exiressed his. admiration of her sent': nents very warmly, adding at hA ame time to the lady of the house, Not so, by the way,your friend;'and ie put into her hand the slip of writng of her guest which she had given iiui the evening before, over which he ad written the words, ' Fascinating, ulse, and hollow-hearted.'. The lady f the house kept the secret, and Mr never knew that the writing oa 'l'ich he had pronounced so severe a idgment was that of the friend he so reatly admired." f