Democratic Sentinel, Volume 5, Number 16, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 May 1881 — What the Thumb Does. [ARTICLE]

What the Thumb Does.

Have you noticed that when you want to take hold of anything —abit.of thread, we will say—that it is always the thumb who puts himself forward, and that h« is always on one side by himself, while the rest of the fingers are on the other 1 If the thumb is not helping, nothing stops in vour hand, and you don’t know what to do with it. Try, by way of experiment, to carry your spoon to yoni mouth without putting your thumb to it, and you will see what a long time if will take you to get through with a pool little plateful of broth. The thumb ii placed in such a manner on your hand that it can face each of the other fingers, one after the other, or all together, ai you please, and by this we are enabled to grasp, as with a pair of pincers, al’ objects, whether large or small. Oui bands owe their perfection of usefulnesi to this happy arrangement, which has been liestowed on no other animal except the monkey, our nearest neighbor. Apropos of the great fire in Paris a correspondent offers the following advice: “In disasters of this kind one should proceed with the strictest order and method. Accordingly, one will first of all save the children, who are the future; the women, who are the present; the old men, who are experience; then the furniture; and, if there is time, ‘the collateral relations and the mothers-in-law.” _ Lecture on the rhinoceros : Professor—“l must beg you to give me your undivided attention. It is impossible that you can form a true ide of this hideous animal. unleM you keep your eye fixed on me.