Boy's Finger Valued at $11,000

1919

SUNBURY, Pa. — Placing the value of his son's little finger on the left hand at $11,000, Idres Davies of Shamokin, brought suit against J. J. Martini for the amount. According to Davies, the boy was operating a meat slicer in Martini's place that was unprotected. The boy showed great talent as a violinist and now he will he unable to perform.

—The Saturday Blade, Chicago, Jan. 3, 1920, p. 5.

Pickpocket's Hand in a Mole Trap

1905

Louis Hugon, a young pickpocket of seventeen, had a most unfortunate experience this afternoon while exercising his profession.

A crowd had assembled around a fallen horse in the Place d'Italie, and Hugon saw a lady whose bulging pockets offered all kinds of tempting possibilities. Without further ado he deftly introduced his hand, but instead of grasping the expected purse, found his finger securely caught in a new mole trap which the lady had just purchased.

With Spartan-like heroism, he uttered no cry, but tried to withdraw his hand. The lady, however, became conscious that something was wrong, and Hugon was seized by the bystanders and handed over to the police. The latter took him to the Hospital de la Pitie, where the amputation of his finger was adjudged necessary. — Paris correspondence, London Chronicle.


Descended Mountain on Skis

Norman Libby of Bridgton, Me., recently made the ascent of Mt. Washington and made the descent to the base on skis, without mishap, being the first man who ever successfully made the attempt.

Fish Bites Girl's Finger

1915

She Lands Prize Pickerel but Loses the Digit

MONTICELLO, N. Y., Dec. 16. — Miss Kittie Evans of Jersey caught one of the largest pickerels of the season here, but she is now minus one of her fingers as the result of her prize catch.

Miss Evans with her arm bared to the shoulder, reached down under the log to dislodge the hook, which had caught on the log. An instant later she fell back screaming into the boat, and when she drew her arm from the water a large pickerel came flopping into the boat. When Miss Evans attempted to loosen the hook, the large pickerel, which apparently must have been under the log, "struck" at the live minnow and also seized Miss Evans' finger.

The young lady was taken in an automobile to a physician's office at Centerville. The fish's teeth had so badly mangled her finger that the doctor found it necessary to amputate the injured member. The pickerel's weight was four pounds and three ounces.

Significance of the Fingers

1874

Each finger, and the mount at the base of it, is named from a planet. In the normal hand the second finger is the longest, the third the next longest, the first nearly as long as the third, and much longer than the fourth or little finger.

Jupiter is the first finger. If it be long and not ill-shapen, and if the mount at its base be well developed, it indicates a noble and lofty character, and a religious-minded person. If disproportionately long, it will mean different things according to the type of hand in which it may be found, or according to the type of that particular finger; in the first type, an over-long first finger would denote an inclination to the fantastic or the exaggerated in religious matters; or it might, perhaps, mean religious madness; or, if other signs in the hand favored this view, it could be taken to denote pride. Pride is a form of worship — the culture of self. In the second type of hand, the excessive development of Jupiter might mean ambition, or, if it were in a hand that was eminently unselfish, it would stand for a something puritanical in manners and morals — a too great severity. In the third type, a very long first finger would probably signify vanity.

The second finger is Saturn. If too prominent it announces melancholy, or misanthropy, or downright cruelty, according to the type of hand; but if the finger be within due proportion, this sadness may take the form of pity for others, or it may mean merely a becoming gravity.

The third finger is Apollo, and belongs to the arts. In a "pointed" hand Apollo will give poetry and music composition; in a "square" hand, painting, sculpture, (here art leaves the domain of the purely contemplative; it becomes partly active from the combination of manual skill with what is only imaginative;) and in a "spade-shaped" hand Apollo will give histrionic power, an aptitude for acting, or a love of theatrical amusements. On the stage art is joined in the closest manner to motion.

The fourth finger is Mercury. If well proportioned it promises a scientific turn of mind, resourcefulness and diplomacy — tact.

The thumb is Venus. Chirognomy and palmistry agree in almost all particulars about the thumb. In both systems it is treated as the most important part of the hand. The upper joint, that with the nail, stands for the will; the second division, the reasoning faculties; the base, the animal instincts. — St. Paul's Magazine.