"Why don't my hands look and feel as it would seem that the perfect
Author of all things would have them?" How many a young man and woman
have asked this question! and are troubled to know why it is that some
persons have such bloodless hands, perfect nails, so free from
hang-nails, as they are called, while their own hands look so much like
duck's feet or bird's claws.
All sorts of cosmetics, the most penetrating oils, rubbing and scouring
the hands, paring and scraping the nails, and cutting round the roots of
the nails, are resorted to, in hopes of making their hands appear
natural; but all avails nothing, and many a poor hand is made to perform
all its manipulations _incognito_. About the piano, in the social party,
in the house, and in the street, the hand--the most exquisite, or what
should be the most beautiful and useful part of the human frame--is
_gloved_. And why? Because it is not fit to be seen.
Now, reader, I am about to tell you of a positive cure. In the first
place, never cut or scrape your finger-nails with a knife or scissors,
except in paring them down to the end of the fingers. Secondly, use
nothing but a good stiff nail-brush, fine soap, and water, and rub the
nails and hands briskly with these every morning the _year round_. In
the third place, I would have you know that surfeiting will invariably
produce heavy, burning hands. An impure state of the blood will manifest
itself in the hands sooner than in most other parts of the body. If you
have bad hands, be assured that the quantity or quality, or both, of
your diet is wrong.
If you try to profit by these suggestions, you will, before one year
expires, be no longer ashamed of your hands.