Picture Play Magazine (Mar-Aug 1926)

27 What Their Hands Betray Read what an expert on handwriting has to say about the characters of some of the rising young actors and actresses of the screen, and then watch and see whether his judgments prove to be correct. By Eugene Clement d'Art HANDS are like finger prints — you can't escape them. Try as you may to hide your identity behind an assortment of assumed names and disguises, your finger prints will in the end always give you away. And it's the same sort of thing with hands — they just as relentlessly show up character, whether in their shape or in the way they write. There's no use trying to hide anything about yourself from any one who gets hold of a sample of your writing and knows how to interpret it. There are certain little quirks and curves that will betray you to the graphologist every time. Let's take, for our firsf victim Livingston. We find delicacy and good taste — the hand is pleasant and clear, with large, well-formed capital letters and elongated loops. The signature offers peculiar and very striking ornaments. What is their exact meaning? Tied as they are to large capital letters, and in combination with other large letters, they indicate a certain degree of pride and vanity, foibles of the fair sex easily forgiven. That and better things, such as initiative and imagination. The latter is confirmed xtfargaret Photo by Melbourne Spurr by the elongated, somewhat exaggerated loops, suggesting an ardent, brilliant nature wherein imagination is present to a marked degree. Dots for the i's are present, indicating good concentration, but they are not where they should be, so orderliness is not so good. These dots are well formed and rounded — clear judgment, firmness of character. Moods characterize Margaret. Look at the t stripes. One is added before the t proper, high and not crossing it. At times she is conservative and inclined to domination — the second bar is lower, long, and thicker toward the end, a sign of energy mixed with what is called temper in ordinary women and artistic temperament in actresses. I should say, however, that any outbursts of this type are of short duration. As a whole, the hand is plain and neat. The o's and g circles are mostly open, meaning frankness. And as the letters are inclined to the right, friend / liness can be added. Without being a prodigal, Margaret is generous — there is plenty of air, plenty of space between the words and between the lines. The lines are straight and horizontal — she is businesslike and usually self-possessed. There are detached letters, but the majority are connected. Intuition is present as, in the average woman, it must be, but Margaret's mind works with the sound reasoning power of a man's. In her hand, the fourth finger — i. e., the one next to the little finger — is a good deal longer than the second, showing that the love of glory, art, idealism far outweigh the love of money. The nails are short — she is inclined to mockery. They are naturally round — a sign of obstinacy. The first phalanx of the thumb is longer than the second — will and persistency predominate over reason and logic. In all other fingers, the first and third phalanxes are larger than the second — Margaret likes comforts and enjoys the material side of life. Her will power will do much to bring about the satisfaction of her wants. If she makes money, it will not be through love of money, things the love of the but rather through money will buy. She has the "square" type of finger, indicative of the positive mind. Let's next take Roy d'Arcy — he who has attracted such attention in the role of the Crozvn Prince in "The Merry Widow."