MASTERS OF DESTINY

The Hands and Careers of

Seventy-five
Famous Men and Women
Josef Ranald

CONTENTS
PREFACE .................................................................................................................................. 1
JANES ADDAMS ..................................................................................................................... 7
KING ALBERT OF BELGIUM ................................................................................................ 8
NICELO ALCALA-ZAMORA ................................................................................................. 9
ALFONSO OF SPAIN ............................................................................................................ 11
CAPTAIN ROALD AMUNDSEN .......................................................................................... 13
GEORGE ARLISS................................................................................................................... 15
JOHN BARRYMORE ............................................................................................................. 17
VICKY BAUM ........................................................................................................................ 19
DAVID BELASCO ................................................................................................................. 21
LOUIS BLRIOT .................................................................................................................... 23
EVANGELINE BOOTH ......................................................................................................... 25
ARISTIDE BRIAND ............................................................................................................... 27
WILLIAM JENNINGS BRYAN ............................................................................................. 29
RICHARD E. BYRD ............................................................................................................... 31
GENERAL PLUTARCO ELIAS CALLES ............................................................................ 33
CHARLES CHAPLIN ............................................................................................................. 35
WINSTON CHURCHILL ....................................................................................................... 37
GEORGES CLEMENCEAU ................................................................................................... 39
CALVIN COOLIDGE ............................................................................................................. 41
ELY CULBERTSON............................................................................................................... 43
MME. MARIE CURIE ............................................................................................................ 45
GABRIELE D'ANNUNZIO .................................................................................................... 47
CLARENCE DARROW .......................................................................................................... 49
GENERAL CHARLES G. DAWES........................................................................................ 51
EUGENE V. DEBS ................................................................................................................. 53
EAMON DE VALERA ........................................................................................................... 55
MARLENE DIETRICH........................................................................................................... 57
PAUL DOUMER ..................................................................................................................... 59
ISADORA DUNCAN .............................................................................................................. 61
AMELIA EARHART .............................................................................................................. 63
THOMAS A. EDISON ............................................................................................................ 65
ALBERT EINSTEIN ............................................................................................................... 67
DOUGLAS FAIRBANKS ....................................................................................................... 69
HENRY FORD ........................................................................................................................ 71
SIGMUND FREUD ................................................................................................................. 73
MOHANDAS K. GANDHI ..................................................................................................... 75
GRETA GARBO ..................................................................................................................... 77
FLOYD GIBBONS .................................................................................................................. 79
MAXIM GORKY .................................................................................................................... 81
MATA HARI ........................................................................................................................... 83
ADOLF HITLER ..................................................................................................................... 85
HERBERT HOOVER .............................................................................................................. 87
HARRY HOUDINI ................................................................................................................. 89
BOBBY JONES ....................................................................................................................... 91
HELLEN KELLER .................................................................................................................. 93
RUDYARD KIPLING ............................................................................................................. 95
SINCLAIR LEWIS .................................................................................................................. 97

CHARLES A. LINDBERGH .................................................................................................. 99

SIR THOMAS LIPTON ........................................................................................................ 101
SIR OLIVER LODGE ........................................................................................................... 103
RAMSAY MacDONALD ..................................................................................................... 105
GUGLIELMO MARCONI .................................................................................................... 107
ANDREW W. MELLON....................................................................................................... 109
BENITO MUSSOLINI .......................................................................................................... 111
IGNACE JAN PADEREWSKI ............................................................................................. 113
MUSTAPHA KEMAL PASHA ............................................................................................ 115
GENERAL JOHN J. PERSHING.......................................................................................... 117
MARY PICKFORD ............................................................................................................... 119
RAYMOND POINCAR ...................................................................................................... 121
POPE PIUS XI ....................................................................................................................... 123
LORD READING .................................................................................................................. 125
JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER ................................................................................................... 127
WILL ROGERS ..................................................................................................................... 129
FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT .............................................................................................. 131
GEORGE BERNARD SHAW .............................................................................................. 133
ALFRED E. SMITH .............................................................................................................. 135
JOSEPH STALIN .................................................................................................................. 137
RABINDRANATH TAGORE .............................................................................................. 139
ARTURO TOSCANINI......................................................................................................... 141
LEON TROTSKY ................................................................................................................. 143
GENE TUNNEY ................................................................................................................... 145
PAUL VON HINDENBURG ................................................................................................ 147
THE PRINCE OF WALES.................................................................................................... 149
H. G. WELLS ........................................................................................................................ 151
WOODROW WILSON ......................................................................................................... 153

PREFACE
HUMAN character is the most interesting of all studies, because it affects ourselves. True, it
enables us to understand other people, other races, and other timesfor character changes little
and few new crimes or virtues have appeared since Alexander or Platobut more than that it
helps us to understand ourselves. And that, to all of us, is important.
Why is Garbo a great actress? Why is Mussolini a great ruler? Because of something within
them, the inscrutable subtle force of mind and personality. Within their brains lies the secret,
but the presence of the things that make them what they are has an external sign; is indicated
by marks there for anyone with the skill to read. Marks, in short, in the palm of the hand.
Just as the brain is the primary organ of the mind, so the hand is essentially the organ of the
brain, the medium of its expression and the instrument by which its orders are carried into
execution. It is known that there are more nerves, sensory and motor, running directly from the
brain to the hand, than to any other part of the body. In the study of human nature there is no
part of the body which is more revealing in its actions or more characteristic in its formation
than the hand. Everyone is interested in knowing as much about him or herself as possible, yet
curiously enough few of us are aware that ones whole character and entire lifes fate and
history actually lie revealed. with- greater or less clarity, in the palm of ones hand.
In this foreword, I shall try to give the rules and principles of hand analysis in a condensed and
easily followed form, based upon many years of study and research in this field and upon the
analyses of thousands of hands. The rules apply not only to the search for a life-work, but also
to those often unsuspected traits, tendencies, and potentialities upon which the development
and control of health, prosperity, and happiness depend.
As to the reading of character, it is well known that the face can and usually doeswear a
mask that may deceive even the best judgment, but the lines of the palm cannot change as the
result of a mere wish or effort to please. The character they express is the real nature of the
individual, the true character that has been formed by heredity, or that has grown up through
long years of habit and environment.
As a guide in regard to health, it gives warning of tendencies toward certain diseases, inherited
or otherwise, liability to infection, and the inclination toward intemperance.
As an aid in the choice of a life-work, it may be extremely helpful, for the misplacement of
human beings is one of the greatest tragedies. Young people frequently start out quite aimlessly.
They either drift from one place to another or, having taken a place unsuited to them, have not
initiative or courage enough to lift themselves out of it. The years go by and in the minor jobs
they do the work well enough, but each year makes it more difficult for them to move. One day
they wake up to the realization that there is nothing ahead of them in their own work, and that
they are now too old to be accepted in another. A true understanding of the lines of the hand
can help to avoid this tragedy.
This science should help you to discover your own aptitudes and talents, and, through them, to
indicate the things you are fitted for most naturally. It may well point the way to the profession
or trade in which you can be most successful. Many people are interested in the subject because
they think it can foretell future events. This science, which had its origin in the ceremonies of
primitive diviners and priests, later came to be studied and practised by highly civilized peoples,
such as the Assyrians, Chaldeans, Hebrews, Greeks, Romans, and many others, down to the
Middle Ages, when it had reached a position where it was looked upon as an exact science and
as worth) of careful study as any of the sciences of the age. Men of the highest rank and
intelligence gave their time to it, and one of the first books ever printed was a book on
chiromancy. But later, in an age of extreme ignorance and superstition, the temptation to exploit
a willing public became gradually greater, and chiromancy, or palmistry, as it is now more
commonly known, was degraded until it became a tool in the hands of unscrupulous fortune
1

tellers who were as ignorant and credulous as their dupes. By professing to know what the
distant future held in store for their patrons, they exploited the rich and poor alike. Even then
not all the palmists were fortune tellers, for many brilliant and learned scholars diligently kept
up the study of this science, increasing and adding new discoveries as time went on.
Here I should like to offer my candid opinion, proven by years of study and researchand I
have myself been credited with many apparently uncanny analyses and predictionsthat no
one can with certainty predict the future occurrences in life. We can only foresee the probable
development of certain signs, and from the character, position, and other factors, draw
deductions and give a forecast of what may follow. In this respect, the science of hand analysis
is based upon the fact that the human hand reflects on the palm thoughts and impressions,
conscious or unconscious, that agitate and sway the brain. It is an established fact that the brain
is always growing, changing, increasing or diminishing, and that these changes may commence
years before the effect is shown by thoughts or actions of the individual.
For instance: a boy nine years of age may at that period commence a development which will
not be felt or consciously sensed until twenty years later. Then it may suddenly change the
trend of his whole life and career, but as this development had begun at the age of nine, it has
already at that age affected certain nerves and they in their turn have affected the lines of the
palm a full twenty years before the point of change or action has been reached. It may manifest
itself, for instance, in a suddenly discovered talent to paint, never before suspected, but which
lay dormant for many years, and which the scientific palm analyst detected and predicted. In
this example can be summed up the secret of my analyses and predictions.
Again, some individuals are gifted with certain highly acute intuitive powers which they very
often, unknown to themselves, unconsciously use. This is a gift which, although it cannot be
acquired, may be developed, for I cannot overstress the importance of the development of
intuitions. I mean by it that whole area of subconscious or superconscious activity which
underlies or overlies our ordinary mental machinery. Its usefulness depends upon its exercise.
Its presence is often indicated on the palm.
Modern life tends to stress the mere operations of the conscious mind and so in some degree to
discourage the use of ones intuitions, it is only of late that scientists are becoming aware of it
and sec the importance of developing those thousand and one antenna; which subconsciously
absorb, especially in everyday contacts with other human beings, impressions of which the
mind either cannot take account or comprehends all too slowly.
Let us take the secret of genius for an example. I have met many men of genius, yet it is difficult
to define what genius really is. We can never find out exactly how geniuses become geniuses,
for they themselves do not know and could not tell even if they tried. In all great
accomplishments of every kind there is a touch of genius. It is that element which makes any
astounding achievement so interesting and puzzling. Genius itself is inexplicable. It is a
conquest of the impossible by the forces of the human spirit, but although it can never be
understood, yet the sustaining force of genius may be preserved and measured by looking into
the life which shapes its mode of expression, and hand analysis can help us solve that riddle
solve it to the extent of helping man to become more and more the master of his own destiny.
I divide the science of hand analysis into two principal sections: first, the science of interpreting
character and tendency from the outward formation, and aspect of the hand; and second, the
science of analyzing character and instincts and the resulting actions and habits and events in
various lives, from the lines and formations of the palm of the hand.
In the first, hands can be divided into seven distinct classes. The seven different types are as
follows:

1. The Elementary Hand.

This hand belongs to the lowest type of mentality. In appearance it is coarse and clumsy, with
a large and thick, heavy palm; short fingers and short nails. It is always important to notice the
length of the palm and fingers because if the palm dominates the hand, being longer than the
fingers, it indicates an animal nature. There are also very few lines to be seen on the palm of
such hands. People possessing such a type have little mental capacity. They are phlegmatic and
emotionless. We find this type more often among the primitive races in extremely cold latitudes.
2. The Conical or Artistic Hand.
'This hand is medium-sized, the palm slightly tapering, the fingers full at the base and slightly
pointed at the tip. The mam characteristics of those who possess this sort of hand may be
summed up as follows: They are impulsive and artistic by nature, and easily influenced by
other people. They arc often called artistic but in reality they are more influenced artistically
by color, music, and similar things, than being themselves artistically gifted.
3. The Spatulate or Active Hand.
So called because it is unusually broad at the wrist or at the base of the fingers. The tip of each
finger is broad and flat. The main characteristics of this type arc action, movement, restless
nature, energy, and enthusiasm.
4. The Square or Useful Hand.
This hand is so called because of the square palm at the wrist and at the base of the fingers;
also from the square tendency of the fingers and nails. To these hands the useful is preferable
to the beautiful. People with such hands are punctual, precise, and orderly.
5. The Knotty or Philosophic Hand.
The shape of this hand is easily recognized. It is generally long and distinguished by bony
fingers, well-developed joints, and long nails. People with such a type of hand are as a rule
students of abstruse subjects. The great characteristics of these types are analysis, meditation,
independence of mind, indifference to material things, and the eternal search for truth.
6. The Psychic or Pointed Hand.
This hand in its formation is long, narrow, with slender, tapering fingers and long, almondshaped nails. Such individuals are of the purely visionary, idealistic nature and are ruled more
by heart than by mind. They also possess highly intuitive faculties.
7. The Mixed Hand.
This hand is so called because it cannot possibly be classed as any of the previously mentioned
hands. The fingers often belong to different typesone pointed, one square, one spatulate, etc.
This is the hand of ideas, adaptability and general changeability of purpose. People possessing
it are so versatile that they have no difficulty in meeting the different situations with which
they may come in contact.
Before coming to the second section of the science of hand analysis, I must mention the fact
that no two human palms are alike, as there are no two human destinies alike. The lines, that
follow, however, which very few hands are without, will serve in enlightening you as to their
purpose and meaning in your life and career. It is necessary to examine both hands. The left
hand shows the hereditary tendencies. On it may be seen the transmission of character and
qualities from parents to their children. On the right hand, however, is the mark of what use
you have made of your talents and opportunities, the development of hereditary tendencies or

their arrest From the right hand you can also, in a measure, draw conclusions as to what the
future is likely to bring forth for you.
Following are the principal lines of the hand as marked on the chart on page xiv.
(1) Line of Life or Longevity. Marked by Letter A. Commences under the first finger and
encircles the base of the thumb, denoting the state of your health and vitality. Note particularly
that a short Line of Life does not necessarily mean a short life. It is only a combination of all
your lines that indicates the probable length of your life.
(2) Line of Head (B) crosses the center of the palm, giving an indication of your mentality, your
talents, and your inclinations. The commencement and the end of this line should be distinctly
noted for this shows the direction toward which your mentality is inclined to develop.
(3) Line of Heart (C), which runs parallel to that of the Line of the Head, indicating the
emotional and affectionate side of your nature.
(4) Line of Destiny (D), which occupies the center of the hand, somewhere from the wrist to
the base of the middle finger or thereabouts; for its location varies in different hands, marking
the important events in your life and career, and foreshadowing events of the future.
(5) Line of Brilliancy (E), which is not found on every hand but which gives a clear indication
of your disposition and your happiness in life.
(6) Line of Intuition (F), which takes more or less the formation of a semicircle and is found
only on the hands of highly intuitive people.
(7) Lines of Marriage (M), which are to be found on the side of the hand under the fourth finger.
Only the clearly marked lines relate to marriage, the short ones to deep affection or marriage
contemplated but never entered into.

THE PRINCIPAL LINES OF THE NORMAL HAND

A Line of Life
B Line of Head
C Line of Heart
D Line of Destiny
E Line of Brilliance
F Line of Intuition
M Lines of Marriage
There are, of course, many more lines, stars, crosses, islands, circles, and squares on your palm,
indicating a variety of different tendencies, happenings, and events in your life. You will find
many of them with the biographies of the famous personalities that appear in this book.
I have tried to make these instructions as simple as possible. For a more detailed and complex
study of the subject there are many large and thorough books. From the lines given here, and
the various special markings in the actual hands that follow, you will be able with a little study
to read the message of your own hand and the direction your destiny is likely to take.
But whether you read this book for pleasure, or to secure such information from it as it may
contain, I hope that it will convince you that man is, to a great extent, master of his own destiny.
Here l cannot resist the temptation of quoting Professor Arthur H. Compton of Chicago
University, former winner of the Nobel Prize for Physics, in his final lecture of the Terry course
at Yale University on the subject, Are Mens Actions Determined by Physical Laws?
Nature does not obey definite physical laws, and physical laws are not sufficient to determine
the future of any object, living or not living, said Professor Compton, and went on:
5

This question is vital to mankind for the reason, first urged strongly by Socrates, that if man's
actions are determined by physical law his motives and purposes are ineffective and life
becomes meaningless.
The problem is likewise vital to science; for at one time a flourishing science was abandoned
because it seemed to undermine the basis of morality, and today we arc faced with the question:
Are the physical laws which describe the motion of the planets and the chemical combinations
of atoms sufficient to describe the activities of living organisms? Since living beings arc a great
part of this world, we cannot consider our knowledge of physical laws complete until we know
how far they go toward accounting for the phenomena of life.
Leucippus and Democritus, the ancient atomists, were probably the first to attempt to explain
everything by physical laws. Everything happens by a cause and of necessity. According to
convention, there is a sweet and a bitter, a hot and a cold, and, according to convention, there
is color. In truth, there are atoms and a void. Everything from waves dashing against a rock to
the love of a man tor a maid was explained in terms of atoms.
Socrates, however, pointed out that this mechanical view cut away the basis of morality, since,
in a world of atoms, purpose could have no effect. Because science thus failed to show how
life should be lived, the scientific spirit gave way first to philosophy, then to mysticism, and
was finally drowned in a sea of credulity in all forms of miracles and magic.
The gradual emergence of modern science from this submergence followed from Thomas
Aquinass insistence that Gods laws as revealed in Scripture and in nature must be consistent
with each other. The acme of this first great surge of modern science was Newtons laws of
motion and of gravitation. It was felt that the whole world had been explained in terms of
physical laws.
There followed a period of extreme mechanism during the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries. Kant, Berkeley, and others reacted against it, with efforts to place human purpose
again in a controlling position. But as long as physical laws were considered sufficient to
account for all the world, what effect could motives have? Nor could Newtons science be
lightly cast aside as had that of Democritus.
So, for three centuries philosophers have been held on the horns of a dilemma. The sufficiency
of physical laws to determine every physical action, including the physical action of living
organisms, was considered proven by Newton. This appeared irreconcilable with the apparent
effectiveness of human purpose.
Now, from recent developments in physics, it appears that physical conditions, meaning by
that conditions that can conceivably be observed, are not sufficient to determine small-scale
physical events. In this regard atoms differ from bullets or planets. It appears probable, likewise,
that the course of the nerve current in the brain is not definable in terms of the initial physical
conditions.
Thus, if the action of a living organism is predictable from a knowledge of its purpose, this
implies that its action is determined jointly by the physical and psychological conditions. An
effort is made to show how much joint determination may be reconciled with the knowledge
of the physical world as it stands at present.
The conclusion is that nature does not obey definite physical laws, and that physical laws are
not sufficient to determine the future of any object, living or non-living. Whereas in non-living
matter the end result is, with certain limits, a matter of chance for a living organism, purpose
gives to its actions a higher degree of definiteness. Thus it seems that when both physical and
psychological laws are taken into account, the actions of a living organism such as man may
be approximately determined.
It thus becomes possible, in light of modern science, to see once more the vision that Plato
saw, of man as master of his own destiny.
JOSEF RANALD
6

JANES ADDAMS
[Missing pages]

KING ALBERT OF BELGIUM

[Missing pages]

NICELO ALCALA-ZAMORA

The star of eloquence

The star of fiery eloquence is found on the top of the fourth finger, denoting a power of
eloquence which, by its fiery passion, seldom fails to carry away its audiences.
Don Niceto Alcala-Zamora, first President of the newly formed Spanish Republic, was born at
Priego de Cordoba, July 6, 1877, and comes of pure Andalusian stock. Although for many
years an ardent monarchist, he turned republican as a result of Primo de Riveras dictatorship
and was one of the men who contributed most to the downfall of King Alfonso XIII. He was
imprisoned as a signer of the Republican Revolutionary Manifesto on December 14,1930, and,
charged with high treason against King Alfonso XIII and the House of Bourbon-Hapsburg, he
struck back and came out of prison to become President of the new Spanish Republic. He had
been known for many years as one of the finest orators in Spain. A famous lawyer, he was also
active as a farmer, being a scion of a family which had owned land for the last four hundred
years, and he has been often seen putting on a workingmans blue blouse and tilling the soil of
his olive groves. The family roots of the first Spanish President go deep into the traditions of
Spanish liberalism, and they have been active in liberal politics since 1812, and more than one
member has been jailed for liberal opinions. He himself continued the family tradition twentysix years ago by taking up law and entering politics. Beginning with the post of secretary to the
civil governor of Madrid in 1907, he rose steadily until he became Minister of Public Works in
1918. In 1923 he fell out with Primo de Rivera, the dictator, and later turned to republicanism
to bring back constitutional rule to Spain. It was he, coming out of the prison cell to which he
had been condemned because of his republican activities, who ordered the last of the Bourbon
kings to leave Spain within three hours and who now bears the weight of his countrys destiny
on his shoulders. The political troubles which harass his regime have been many, but he has
steered his way among them with tact, diplomacy, and sound common sense.

NICELO ALCALA-ZAMORA

Nicelo Alcala-Zamora, first President of Spain, successor to the House of Bourbon-Hapsburg,

lawyer, farmer, and liberal

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ALFONSO OF SPAIN

The star of uncertain fate

The line of uncertain fate ascends the hand without branches and runs like a lonely path up and
onto the base of the second linger, signifying the probability of a life swayed by external
circumstances.
Ex-King Alfonso of Spain probably is the only monarch in history who was literally born a
king. He was born on May 17, 1886, almost exactly six months after the death of his father,
Alfonso XII. If Alfonso XIII were not a fatalist and at the same time a very courageous man,
he would probably have given up his throne long before 1931, for since the age of eight months,
when an attempt was made to poison him through the feeding bottle, to the day he was forced
to renounce his kingship, he was in constant danger of assassination. He has been a mark for
dozens of assassins, escaping death at times by the narrowest of margins. During his minority
his mother, Queen Christina, ruled as regent, but at the age of sixteen he ascended the throne.
On May 31, 1906, he married Princess Victoria Eugenia of Batten- berg, granddaughter of
Queen Victoria of England. While the newly married couple were driving from the cathedral
at Madrid to the royal palace, a bomb thrown by an anarchist actually hit the carriage, killing
twenty-four soldiers and spectators and wounding eighty others. Alfonso displayed his
characteristic courage and, with a contemptuous flick of his ever-present cigarette, he later
remarked, Its all part of my job as king. Military reverses in the eternal Morocco campaigns
and the dictatorship of Primo de Rivera, which he forced upon the people, finally led to a
peaceful revolution in which, on April 14, 1931, Alfonso XIII relinquished his kingdom. He
was the last of the House of Bourbon, which during ten centuries had ruled in many lands. The
royal heritage of Alfonso runs back to the year 888, when his ancestor Eudes, son of Robert
the Strong, took the throne of France and founded the French dynasty that fell only when the
head of Louis XVI was severed by the guillotine more than nine hundred years later. The
Bourbon dynasty in Spain was founded by Philip of Anjou, who made his way to the Spanish
throne by force of arms and took the name of Philip V. Alfonso XIII, who had been a sovereign
for more years than any other king now living, is tall, well-knit, and slender. His skin is olive,
11

his eyes are brown, and his hair and mustache arc still black. He is democratic and an active
sportsman.
ALFONSO OF SPAIN

Alfonso XIII, ex-King of Spain, until his deposition sovereign for more years than any other
ruler now alive

12

CAPTAIN ROALD AMUNDSEN

The star of supreme adventure

The star of supreme adventure is found on a branch extending from what is known as the line
of life, and signifies a personality that in its daring courage often tempts fate in quest of the
unknown, and in the face of terrific odds, mental as well as physical, attains his ends.
Captain Roald Amundsen, the first man to arrive at the South Pole, and perhaps the greatest
explorer and adventurer of our times, was a typical son of the Vikings. Born in Sarpsburg,
Norway, on July 16, 1S72, he had the traits of the inhabitants of the Scandinavian Peninsula
strongly developed. He was almost the ideal of an ice searchercourageous, patient, quiet,
with endless industry and endurance.
He had his first real taste of exploration when, in 1897, he went as first officer with the Belgia,
on Gerlach's Belgian South Polar Expedition.
Next, in 1005. he took his ship through the Behring Strait, the first to make the Northwest
Passage, which for more than three centuries had remained the lure of adventurous sailors from
many lands.
In 1911 he planted the flag of his native Norway at the South Pole, as a result of which he was
showered with honors from his native country and many others.
But the spell of the polar fever was still strong upon him. It seems a strange twist of fate that
his life work should have ended somewhere near where it beganin the Norwegian Sea, off
the coast of his native land, where, as a young man, he started out on a career of great adventure.
The finding of bits of wreckage of the plane, in which he and five companions sailed away in
aid of former comrades lost somewhere in the polar wastes, leaves little doubt that this supreme
adventurer has at last paid the supreme sacrifice. His end, no doubt, was as he himself would

13

have wished it: to die in action; and it is to the sturdy spirit of this man, rather than to his
astonishing achievements, that the world bows its head.
CAPTAIN ROALD AMUNDSEN

Captain Roald Amundsen, one of the last explores in the great traditions, the first man to
arrive at the South Pole

14

GEORGE ARLISS

The tripod of brilliant acting ability

The tripod of brilliant acting ability is found at the termination of the line of head, denoting as
a rule great talent in the theater.
George Arliss, the great and much loved stage and screen star, was born in Bloomsbury, a
district of London, on April 10, 1868, the son of a not very successful printer and publisher,
who was known locally at that time as the Duke of Bloomsbury, because he always wore a
monocle. After graduation from school young Arliss spent a year working in his fathers
business and dabbling in amateur theatricals in the evenings. Finally he made up his mind to
follow a theatrical career and, joining the Elephant and Castle Stock Company in London, made
his debut as a super in a melodrama, Saved From the Sea. Later followed better roles and a
season in musical comedy. Eventually he secured an engagement with Mrs. Patrick Campbell,
and his popular appeal was established. Sometime later he came to America, where his success
was even greater than it had been in London. He scored heavily in Pineros The Second Mrs.
Tanqueray, and was engaged by David Belasco for The Darling of the Gods with Blanche Bates.
In 1908 he was first starred in Ferenc Molnars play, The Devil, which became the outstanding
success of that time. Then came Disraeli, Alexander Hamilton and The Green Goddess,
followed by John Galsworthys Old English, which proved tremendous successes, his sparkling
portrayals creating theatrical history. Then came the talkiesand his portrayal of Disraeli in
the motion picture of that title, which was awarded the Photoplay Gold Medal as being the
outstanding motion picture for the year 1929. Mr. Arliss never handsome, depending on
features which are interesting and aristocratic but irregular, has gained the greater part of his
success in character roles. He is a meticulous dresser, somewhat of a dandy, and, like his father,
is never seen without his monocle. He is a lover of good books and is reticent regarding his
personal life, which is peaceful and domestic and about which he has the usual Englishmans
reticence.

15

GEORGE ARLISS

George Arliss, famous actor, graceful writer, great man

16

JOHN BARRYMORE

The line of brilliant dramatic expression

The line of brilliant dramatic expression is found ascending from the lower side of the palm
toward the base of the third finger and signifies extraordinary ability and recognition in the
world of make- believe. Not the least reason for Barrymores brilliant acting is his vivid
imagination, which enables him to live in fancy the lives of the characters he portrays.
John Barrymore, famous stage and screen actor, was born on February 15, 1882, in Philadelphia,
the youngest child of that distinguished American theatrical family affectionately known as
The Royal Family. His father was Maurice Barrymore, and his mother, before her marriage,
was Georgiana Drew, sister of the famous John Drew. As a boy John wished to be an artist. He
attended an art school in London, later entering the Art Students League in New York, where
he studied a short time. Before he was twenty young Barrymore worked, not very successfully,
on two New York newspapers, trying to sketch. Later in life he drew illustrations for a book of
poems by his first wife, whose pen name is Michael Strange. Barrymore made his stage debut
when he was twenty-one, playing the part of Max in Magda at Clevelands Theater in Chicago.
His first part in New York was that of Corly in Glad of It, at the Savoy Theater. Then he toured
England and Australia, appearing in various other plays, and occasionally being in the same
cast with his sister Ethel, and his brother Lionel. His really great triumphs came later when he
played in Galsworthys Justice, in Peter Ibbetson, in Tolstoys Redemption, and finally in
Hamlet, which he played a hundred and one times in New York City alone, breaking the record
of Edwin Booth. He even dared the Shakespearean hoodoo of London with his production,
to score in the most notable success a Shakespearean play has had there since 1600. When he
returned from England he declared his intention of entering the movies and has, since that time,
confined himself entirely to a screen career, in which he rules as a star of first magnitude. He
is now married to Dolores Costello, herself a screen star and daughter of a great actor, Maurice
Costello.

17

JOHN BARRYMORE

John Barrymore, one of the American stage's "Royal Family," brother of Ethel Barrymore,
nephew of John Drew, as successful in Shakespeare as in motion pictures

18

VICKY BAUM

The cross of fulfilled ambitions

The cross of fulfilled ambitions is found at the base of the first finger and gives to its owner
the likelihood of attainment of long-cherished ambitions.
Vicki Baum, editor, musician, author of Grant Hotel and other novels, was born in Vienna, and
although coming from a musical family and herself musically gifted, early formed an ambition
to become a writer. When very young, she took up the study of the harp and was considered a
prodigy, giving her first concert at the age of eleven and later touring central Europe for a
number of years, playing in symphony orchestras. At eighteen she married a young writer, hut
the marriage did not last long. She divorced him and married Richard Lert, a conductor of the
State Opera of Berlin. Losing all their money during the post-war inflation, Frau Baum took
seriously to writing, finally becoming editor of Die Datne. In the meantime she was writing
novels which became best-sellers in Germany: Hell in Frauensee, Helene Willfuer, and others.
It was not until she finished Menschen in Hotel that she found herself internationally famous.
Translated as Grantl Hotel and dramatized under that name, it was a sensation in book form in
Germany, Great Britain, and America, and on the stage was a success in the three great cities
of Berlin, London, and New York. Later transferred to the screen, it repeated its previous
success in other mediums. Out of this world wide acclaim she has emerged as a novelist of high
achievement, her two subsequent novels, And Life Goes On and Secret Sentence, enhancing
her reputation. She does most of her writing at night, studying material for a long time before
she uses it, and then typing it herself. She is still well under forty, blonde, cheerful, composed,
self assured, outspoken but not voluble. She is a devoted housewife and is the mother of two
sons, whom she plans to bring with her to settle permanently in this country. Her work has had
international influence in interpreting the ideas and the life of modern Germany to the people
19

of England and America. The many characters who fill her books include every class, from
miners and small peasants and hotel porters to rich industrialists and government heads. Part
of her popularity is due to the complex, many-sided plots which she weaves so deftly, but still
more is attributable to the universal humanity with which even the least of her creations is
endowed. And to all that she adds the keen powers of observation which distinguish many of
the leaders of modern German literature.
VICKI BAUM

Vicki Baum, editor, musician, and author, springing with one great book into international
literary fame

20

DAVID BELASCO

The tripod of supreme showmanship

The tripod of supreme showmanship is found at the base of the first finger, denoting brilliant
mastery in the world of make-believe.
David Belasco, probably the greatest American theatrical impressario, a playwright and a
brilliant contriver of magical stage effects, was born in San Francisco, July 25, 1854, of a family
of Portuguese Jews, originally called Velasco, who had fled from Portugal to England not long
after Columbus had discovered America. His father, Humphrey Abraham Belasco, born in
London in 1830, had been a harlequin by profession but became a small trader when he came
to America. During Davids childhood he did business in tobacco and furs in San Francisco
and in other Pacific Coast cities. His mothers name was Reine Martin. Davids early education
was entrusted to a Roman Catholic priest, Father Maguire, and he spent two and a half years in
a monastery until he ran away, joined a circus, and became a bareback rider. When he was ten
years old he made his first appearance on the stage in R. B. Sheridans tragedy Pizarro. In the
next few years he studied elocution and wrote and produced several boys melodramas, while
working at a washtub, scrubbing floors, and serving as an errand boy in a cigar store and a
bookshop. By the time he was twenty he had already married and won commendation as a firstrate actor, and by the time he was twenty-nine he had acted in one hundred and seventy-five
parts. In 1882 he came to New York as the manager of the Madison Square Theater, later going
to work for Daniel Frohman. In 1890, starring Mrs. Leslie Carter in The Ugly Duckling, he
became a producer on his own account, and his fame as a master showman spread over the
world. Foremost actors considered it an honor to be asked to play in his productions. During
the many years of his extremely active life he produced more than three hundred plays, of
which he wrote about one hundred himself. His greatest achievement, many agree, lies in the
21

field of realistic stage settings and illusory effects. He died peacefully in May, 1930, at the age
of seventy-seven, leaving his name written large in the history of the American theater.
DAVID BELASCO

David Belasco, late dean of the American stage, known and revered from New York to San
Francisco

22

LOUIS BLRIOT

The semicircle of mechanical genius

The semicircle of mechanical genius is found underneath the middle finger and signifies an
aptitude for supreme skill in mechanics.
As the Wright brothers were the pioneers of aviation in the United States, Louis Blriot was
the pioneer in Europe. Born at Cambrai, France, in 1872, he began his study of flight as early
as 1900. His first model had flapping wings, and was a failure. By 1907 he had managed his
first flightsix seconds, in a machine of his own design. In 1909, a great year in the history of
aviation, he made the first flight across the English Channel, a monumental achievement for
those days. On the morning of July 25, 1909, Bleriot had arrived at Calais on crutches, having
been severely burned by a flaming motor a short time before the epoch-making flight. He
discarded his crutches, was helped into the machine by mechanics, and took off, carrying no
compass or other navigating instruments, depending solely on a warship which the government
had put at his disposal. Flying at the rate of forty-five miles an hour, he lost it in ten minutes,
and without his only guide he flew blindly toward the invisible coast of England. In twenty
minutes he caught sight of the chalk cliffs and, as he told me years later, the sight of that white
coast line was the greatest thrill he experienced during the flight. Nearing the English side, the
breeze stiffened and carried him a few miles east of Dover Castle, blowing him in circles, so
that he had to fly overland to Dover where, spotting a patch of green, he made a landing. The
flight had lasted about thirty minutes. Few realized then what this meant or had ever heard of
Bleriot and his plane up to that moment, but both were renowned throughout the world within
a day. The flight, incidentally, had won a prize of 1000 offered by the London Daily Mail.
Today Bleriot is still alive, having survived almost one hundred accidents, and lives in Paris,
marveling, perhaps, at the fabulous strides in the science he did so much to further. Less than
twenty-five years after his flight across the Channel, which, short as it was, was epochal in its
significance, planes have conquered sea and jungle, have traversed both poles, and have
become commonplace features in the skies of nearly every country. The tiny, fragile open
planes of Bleriot's day have become in that short time swift machines capable of traveling, if
need be, four miles a minute, or of carrying many passengers on flights of hundreds of miles.
23

LOUIS BLRIOT

Louis Bleriot, pioneer of aviation, first flyer of the English Channel, France's greatest
contributor to the science of flight

24

EVANGELINE BOOTH

The line of heart

The line of heart begins on the side of the hand underneath the fourth linger and runs across
the palm, ending in a fork with one branch underneath the first linger and the other between
the first and second fingers, denoting greatness of heart and militant leadership.
Evangeline Cory Booth, Commander of the American Branch of the Salvation Army and
daughter of General William Booth, founder of this world-famous organization, was born in
London, England, one of seven children. She was brought up in London and educated by a
governess. The purpose of the Salvation Army is to save needy bodies as well as needy souls
and, appointed by her father to command of the American branch in 1904, Evangeline Booth
very soon realized that in order to succeed she must have a close-knit, vigorous, and efficient
organization. In the following years of her leadership she extended the work throughout the
country and accumulated a strong bulwark of financial backing. The Salvationists are mostly
recruited from among the children of the old officers, and the forlorn who are saved and are
glad to earn something by helping others in their own plight, for, ever practical, Commander
Booth believes in enabling the poor to help the poor. She is an indefatigable worker, sometimes
devoting sixteen to eighteen hours a day to her work, which includes prison work, street work,
meetings, training cadets. All these activities are supervised by her and all are fired by the great
zeal of her leadership. When the World War came, she sent eleven hundred Salvationists to
Europe, who, having gone there to save souls and bake pies, stayed to make doughnuts, to darn
socks, and to feed and comfort the tired troops. In 1919 Commander Booth received the
Distinguished Service Medal for her services. She possesses that mark of the leaderthe
unusual ability and will to dominate, and undoubtedly would have been successful in any
profession. She knows how to relieve people of both money and distress, and carries on this
useful and flourishing work with enormous energy and enthusiasm. She is an orator, musician,
poet, and composer, tier recreation she finds in riding and swimming.

25

EVANGELINE BOOTH

Evangeline Booth, famous solider of the Salvation Army, orator, musician, poet, and
composer

26

ARISTIDE BRIAND

The line of persuasive power

The line of persuasive power rises underneath the third finger from what is known as the line
of heart and runs to the base of the fourth finger, denoting great powers of persuasion.
Aristide Briand, eleven times Premier and sixteen times Foreign Minister of France, was born
at Nantes, Brittany, on March 28, 1862. His father was a Breton, his mother a Vendene. They
were peasants but had turned to shopkeeping. He was educated at the public schools of St.
Nazaire and Nantes. One of his predecessors at Nantes was Clcmenceau. Here he was a proteg
of the famous novelist, Jules Verne, who used young Briand as a character in a book and has
recorded that Briand was audacious, enterprising, quick at repartee. As a boy he intended to
become a sailor, but was dissuaded when neighbors brought in the body of his aged uncle, a
pilot who was drowned within sight of the family home. He then decided that law and perhaps
journalism might provide an ampler livelihood. At the age of twenty-two he started a
newspaper in St. Nazaire, a radical organ which still exists. Later at Paris he busied himself
with law and newspaper work until 1902, when he was elected Deputy for the Department of
Loire. Within eight years he had been twice Premier and had made his mark in the violent
debates on the separation of Church and State. Perhaps Briands greatest contribution to France
and the world was the difficult negotiations he carried out with Germany following the war,
and his valiant efforts in the cause of world peace. Coming to the fore at the Washington
Conference of 1921 as spokesman for France in her plea for security, he was recognized as a
power for peace. In 1925, for his work to make possible a better understanding among the
nations of Europe, when he was the principal proponent of the movement resulting in the
Locarno treaties guaranteeing the sanctity of the various frontiers, he was rewarded by the
bestowal of the Nobel Peace Prize jointly upon him and the late Gustav Stresemann, then
Foreign Minister of Germany. He was also the sponsor of a plan for a federation of European
nations, a sort of United States of Europe. He had been Foreign Minister for the remarkable
period of seven years, the longest term of any Foreign Minister since Talleyrand. On March 6,
1932, he died peacefully.
27

ARISTIDE BRIAND

Aristide Briand, co-winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, eleven times Premier of France

28

WILLIAM JENNINGS BRYAN

The star of eloquence

The star of eloquence is found at the top of the fourth finder, denoting a power of eloquence
which never fails to hold its listeners spellbound. It is found on the hands of many great orators,
some of whom arc included in this book.
William Jennings Bryan, one of the most extraordinary figures in modern American politics,
was horn in Salem, Illinois, on March 19, 1860, and as a boy had four ambitions: to be a farmer,
a politician, a writer, and a lawyer. lie realized all of them. Bryans father was a strong
Democrat who, soon after his marriage, entered public life by serving in the state senate of
Illinois for eight years and for twelve on the circuit bench. It was only natural for William to
follow his fathers footsteps. In 1887 be settled in Lincoln, Nebraska, where he became an
active worker for a Democratic organization and was later sent to the state convention as a
delegate. In 1890 he was elected to Congress. Bryans activities in Congress gave him an outlet
for his ability as a public speaker, and he began to aim at higher office, refusing to be a
candidate for re- election to Congress. In 1894 he announced that he would run for the Senate,
and the following campaign gave him his first real taste of defeat, but it did not dishearten him.
Then came the Chicago Democratic Convention in 1896, where the main issue was silver.
During the convention, as the debate on this issue grew more bitter, Bryan, with his flowing
black hair, made his way to the platform and in a speech which reached its climax when he
thundered the famous words, You shall not press down upon the brow of labor this crown of
thorns! You shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold! he swept the delegates off their
feet and, under circumstances seldom equaled in political drama, he was nominated as
presidential candidate. He was then thirty-six. From then on, until 1912, when he threw the
votes he controlled to Woodrow Wilson in the Baltimore National Convention, he ruled his
party almost absolutely. He had been named for the party leadership three times and as many
times had been defeated at the polls, but it takes real ability in a beaten leader to continue
leading. Although in many ways Bryan was a statesman in advance of his times, he was a
prophet with honor, but without elective success, in his own country. The mass of voters
29

cheered him, admired him, and idolized him, but would not vote for him. He died on July 26,
1025, leaving behind him an oratorical reputation hardly surpassed even by Daniel Webster.
WILLIAM JENNINGS BRYAN

William Jennings Bryan, the great Commoner, whose so0called "Cross of God" speech won
him a presidential nomination at thirty-six

30

RICHARD E. BYRD

The line of travel

The line of travel and adventure is the line found at the bottom of the palm, running toward the
side of the hand, indicating a life full of continual travel, exploration and adventure. The square
seen on a break on this line denotes great danger, threatening its owner on one of his journeys,
but the square, being a mark of preservation and glory, indicates that he will come through with
flying colors, to be acclaimed by the world.
Rear Admiral Richard Evelyn Byrd, heroic explorer and conqueror of the North and South
poles, was born at Winchester, Virginia, on October 25, 1888. At the age of thirteen he sailed
unaccompanied around the world, through typhoons on Chinese seas, reaching Manila during
a bombardment. As a young boy his imagination was stirred by stories of arctic explorers, and
he set for himself the definite aim in life of becoming a great explorer. After attending the
Virginia Military Institute and the University of Virginia, he entered the United States Naval
Academy at Annapolis, from which he graduated as Ensign, U. S. Navy, in 1912. With the
development of aircraft he became interested in the idea of exploring from the air, and went
through the navy routine, later obtaining his transfer to the Naval Air Service. In 1925 his
dream of arctic exploration came nearer, when he was ordered to accompany MacMillans
expedition as flight commander. With the late Floyd Bennett, his pilot, he flew three thousand
miles in the arctic, obtaining unequaled flying experience in that part of the world. In May,
1926, be made the historic flight from Spitzbergen to the North Pole and back to the air base
at Kings Bay1,360 miles in fifteen and a half hours, with his co-pilot, Floyd Bennett, the
first man ever to fly over the Pole. For this feat he was presented by President Coolidgc with
the National Geographic Societys Hubbard Gold Medal For Valor and Exploration and
made Doctor of Latitude and Longitude by the American Geographical Society. He announced
at that time that he planned to spend the following ten years in the exploration of the Antarctic.
Before organizing his Antarctic expedition, he made a transatlantic flight from New York to
France in the company of three other flyersforty-two hundred miles in forty-two hoursand
two and a half years later, on November 29, 1929, he flew over the South Pole with three
31

companions, making sixteen hundred miles in nineteen hours. His courage, audacity, and selfreliance are proverbial, and in addition he possesses a unique gift of inspiring confidence which,
combined with a strong and pleasing personality, makes him a natural leader.
RICHARD E. BYRD

Richard E. Byrd, greatest of all explorers by air, flyer of the Atlantic, the South Pole, and the
North Pole

32

GENERAL PLUTARCO ELIAS CALLES

The star of powerful leadership

The star of powerful leadership, as seen on this hand, is found underneath the first finger and
signifies the born leader of men.
General Plutarco Elias Calles, ex-President of Mexico and its most impressive personality, has
risen to power in his turbulent country from the most humble beginnings. lie was born in 1877
in the city of Hermosillo, state of Sonora, Mexico, a considerable community even in those
days. Although education in any Mexican community at that time was to a great extent a matter
of individual choice, Calles, by the time he was seventeen, was already able to take the position
of teacher in the school where he had learned to read, and when he was barely of age he became
superintendent of schools in his native city. He did not stay long in that position and, restless
and brilliant as he was, entered politics. History mentions him first as enlisting under Carranza
in a revolt against the usurper Huerta. He came out of this campaign a general and two years
later was fighting under Obregon in a campaign against Villa, marking the beginning of a
partnership which was to result in Obregon and Calles establishing themselves as the leaders
of modern Mexico. At the close of the hostilities Calles was appointed Governor of the state of
Sonora, and later, after serving in the cabinets of both Carranza and Obregon, he was elected
President of Mexico. Although less colorful than the late General Obregon, he impresses those
who come in contact with him with the depth and force of his character and intellect, with his
undoubted qualities of leadership, and with his profound sincerity. In a country full of fanatics
who glory in giving their own lives in exchange for that of the man they believe to be a tyrant,
General Calles is one of the very few' who have seated themselves in the presidential chair
without stepping over the prostrate form of a predecessor. He has the added distinction of being
himself a living ex-President of Mexico. He is the only self-made man who has risen to that
office in a life covering an epoch of more violent transitions than most countries can display.
His influence has always been on the side of equity and restraint, and to him is largely due the
new spirit in Mexico, rapidly bringing that country out of an almost feudal period and into the
group of modern powers.
33

GENERAL PLUTARCO ELIAS CALLES

General Plularco Elias Calles, strong man of Mexico, one of its few living ex-presidents, selfmade man, patriot

34

CHARLES CHAPLIN

The line of comic tragedy

The line of comic tragedy starts at the bottom of the palm from the termination of what is
known as the line of head and, rising upwards, I terminates in a small triangle underneath the
second finger, (t denotes a nature rather gloomy in its outlook, with a genius for portraying the
droller side of life.
Charles Spencer Chaplin, the English boy who came to America and gained success as the
screens greatest comedian, was born in Fontainebleau, France, April r6, 1889, the son of
traveling playershis mother, Lillie Harley, was a singer of character songs and his father a
singer of descriptive ballads. He was only five years old when his mother was taken ill and he
took her place in the act, singing an old coster song, Jack Jones. Later, after his fathers death,
he became a member of a group of juvenile dancers known as the Eight Lancashire Lads.
Afterwards he acted the part of Billy the page boy in Sherlock Holmes. At the conclusion of
this engagement he entered vaudeville as a member of the Karno Company. In 1910 Chaplin
came to the United States as leading comedian with this company and played in many
vaudeville houses here and in Canada. His first picture work was done in 1913 in Hollywood,
where he entered the old Keystone Comedy Company with instantaneous success. In 1918,
already a millionaire, he formed his own company and made a series of successes including A
Dog's Life,
A Day's Pleasure, Shoulder Arms, and the comedy drama The Kid, in which Jackie Coogans
first picture appearance was made. There was a time when the entire world had the Chaplin
craze. Chaplin imitators sprang up like mushrooms, not only on the screen, but oil, and men
tipped their hats in the Chaplin fashion and children tried to walk like him. Chaplin brought a
new idea in the comedy world to the screen. His makeup, a small tuft of a mustache, baggy
trousers, big shoes, derby and cane, was original. Through all this buffoonery there was a subtle
touch of real artistry that lifted his work from routine clowning and made him the greatest
comedian of his day. In his feature pictures like The Kid, The Gold Rush, and City Lights, he
showed a dramatic talent that was a revelation to screen audiences. Although his chief object
35

was still comedy entertainment, he put into it enough deeper meaning to make his pictures
universally acclaimed.
CHARLES CHAPLIN

Charles Chaplin, the motion-picture idol of the entire world, known to millions of picturegoers, including those who understand no word of English

36

WINSTON CHURCHILL

The cross of domineering characteristics

The cross of domineering characteristics is found underneath the first finger, sending out a
branch to what is known as the line of head. It signifies great self-confidence, sometimes
verging on a superiority complex.
Rt. Hon. Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill, versatile soldier, author, orator, and politician,
was born in Blenheim Palace, November 30, 1874, the eldest son of Lord Randolph Churchill.
He was educated at Sandhurst, where he made an excellent record before receiving his
commission. From that time on. his career has been varied and exciting. He has taken part in
half a dozen wars and distinguished himself as a member of the British Cabinet and as a
historian. In politics his rise was rapid. In 1901 he was first elected to a seat in the House of
Commons and, despite his difficulty in speech, soon won the respect of the House. His sense
of humor, his ability as a conversationalist, and his confidence in his own resourcefulness fitted
him admirably to play an important part in political life. While engaged in parliamentary affairs,
he wrote his biography of Lord Randolph Churchill, which was published in 1906 and made
such an impression upon England that it is still considered a standard work on the political
history of the period. In 1908 he first became a member of the Cabinet, and with short intervals
he has since been a leading member of the British government. As First Lord of the Admiralty,
he played an important part at the beginning of the war, but following the failure of the
Dardanelles expedition he lost his post in May, 1915. Soon after the war, Churchill began his
most ambitious literary project. He undertook to write a series of books giving his own views
on the war as seen from the War Room in the Admiralty, from the Ministry of Ammunition,
and from the observation seat of a fighting plane. The World Crisis, completed in four volumes,
marks the high point of his literary development. In it he has given pictures of war which, as
Mr. Arnold Bennett was forced to declare, were, accurate or inaccurate, magnificently readable.

37

WINSTON CHURCHILL

Winston Churchill, as great an author as he is a politician, naval expert, and statesman

38

GEORGES CLEMENCEAU

The star of dominating leadership

The star of dominating leadership is found close to the base of the first finger, signifying the
born leader of men.
Georges Clemenceau, Frances Father of Victory, whose stormy political career was filled
with triumph and defeat and the crowning achievement of whose life was his victorious
prosecution of the war with Germany, distinguished himself with remarkable versatility in
journalism, literature, and philosophy. As war premier of France and head of his famous
Victory Cabinet, Clemenceau was truly the Tiger that he has been called. Although he was
an old man seventy-six years of age when he was called upon to take command he showed
then that he was still the fighter he had always been. He was born in 1841 at Feole, in the
Vendee, where he received a good education, later going to Paris to study medicine. He
developed strong political ideas at an early age and was sent to prison after taking part in a
street demonstration against the Empire. Upon his release from prison he decided to visit the
United States to see what a real republic looked like, as he wrote at the time, and came to
this country in 1865. He practised medicine, wrote articles on American life for the Paris Temps,
taught French and horsemanship at a girls school in Stamford, Connecticut, and fell in love
with one of his pupils, Miss Mary Plummer, whom he later married. They had three children
and were divorced twenty-three years after their marriage. It was the famous Dreyfus case that
first brought Clemenceau the worlds attention; after that he managed to remain internationally
prominent until his death in November, 1929. The most remarkable thing about Clemenceau
was his versatility. His intellectual interests were not limited to politics alone. A brilliant
speaker and writer on all subjects, he wrote plays, novels, philosophic essays, and sociological
studies as well as political articles, and was a member of the French Academy. His many years
in the Chamber of Deputies and as Prime Minister were marked by a turbulence unusual even
in French public life, but his services to his country have given him a place in history which
nothing can shake.

39

GEORGES CLEMENCEAU

Georges Clemenceau, "Tiger" of France, doctor, teacher of French in America,

France's "Father of Victors" during the war, and possibly most turbulent of all France's Prime
Ministers

40

CALVIN COOLIDGE

The line of Apollo

The line of Apollo is found running upward toward the third finger and may start from the line
of life, head, or destiny. This line increases the success indicated by a good line of destiny and
gives strong presumption of fame and good fortune to the life of the individual in whose hand
it is found.
Calvin Coolidge, who, coming out of the simple life and surroundings of Vermont, worked his
way through his own industry, character, and integrity to the highest office the nation has to
offer, was born on July 4, 1872, coming of Puritan ancestors who settled in Massachusetts in
1630. From the little red school- house in the vicinity of his birthplace, Calvin went to the
Block River and St. Johnsburg academies and later to Amherst College, graduating in 1895.
He developed into a typical New Englander, reticent and stoical, but sympathetic in spite of his
cold exterior. Immediately after being admitted to the bar, young Coolidge took an active
interest in politics and began a march upward through minor city offices in Northampton,
Massachusetts, where he settled to practise law. In 190$ he received his first political position
of importance, that of election to the Massachusetts house of representatives and later, after
serving two terms as mayor of Northampton, he went to the state senate and presided over that
body for two years. In 1915 he was elected lieutenant-governor of Massachusetts, serving in
that capacity until his election as governor in 1918. As governor he was nationally acclaimed
for the energy he displayed in putting down the Boston police strike, and became known from
coast to coast as Law and Order Coolidge. On that reputation he was nominated as the
running mate to Warren G. Harding and elected, and upon the death of President Harding on
August 2, 1923, he was sworn in by his own father as the thirtieth President of the United States.
He was reelected and served from 1925 to 1929. Under his administration the country enjoyed
an almost unparalleled contentment and prosperity. Although his personality and the calm
silence that earned him the title of Silent Cal," his thrift, and his New England qualities of
firmness and resolution, did not appeal greatly to the popular imagination, he has easily earned
the reward of being classed among the first twelve of our great Presidents.
41

CALVIN COOLIDGE

Calvin Coolidge, thirtieth President of the United States, most famous exponent of the New
England qualities of silence, thrift, and reticence

42

ELY CULBERTSON

The cross of analytical genius

The cross of analytical genius is found underneath the fourth linger, denoting a brilliant,
analytical mind.
Ely Culbertson, the famous bridge expert and the chief exponent of the Culbertson contract
bridge system, was born in the Caucasus, Russia, in 1891, of rich parents who were owners of
oil wells. He was privately tutored and had all the luxuries of a Russian nobleman, but in spite
of this, at the age of thirteen, he was ng revolutionist tendencies, and by the time he was sixteen,
he had served a jail sentence for his activities. In 1917, with the outbreak of the Russian
Revolution, the Bolshevists confiscated his fathers wealth, and Ely was forced to flee for his
life. After traveling over most of Europe, he came to America, where he first worked as a
dishwasher in a restaurant and later, at a salary of three dollars a day, was timekeeper with a
gang of laborers. His work as a timekeeper left him ample leisure, and it was then that he
worked out his contract bridge system. Later, becoming a bridge teacher and a promoter of
bridge contests, he brought to the game his own picturesque personality, his fame sweeping the
country like wildfire. The whole world became aware of bridge, and Culbertsons various
activities in connection with the game are reported to net him over a quarter of a million dollars
a year. He is an accomplished linguist and speaks fluently in seven languagesRussian, French,
Spanish, Italian, German, Ukranian, and English. Not the least reason for his success is his wife,
Josephine Murphy Culbertson, who encouraged him and was chiefly instrumental in his
becoming a bridge teacher and who, being herself- a bridge expert, helped him to work out his
famous system. There is no doubt that contract bridge owes its present popularity mainly to the
superior showmanship and picturesque personality of Ely Culbertson. His books, carrying his
theories to countless thousands of readers, have been phenomenally successful, and have
helped to create a body of enthusiasts which is undoubtedly larger than that which any other
game of our times has ever achieved. From one end of the world to the other it is now played,
owing in great part to Culbertsons efforts. Possibly no other man, except perhaps the genius
who invented basketball a generation ago, has had such a controlling effect on the development
of any game.
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ELY CULBERTSON

Ely Culbertson, who made bridge a national mania, transformed the entire game, and is as
well known as any monarch

44

MME. MARIE CURIE

The line of intuition

The line of intuition begins on the side of the hand under the fourth finger and runs in the form
of a semicircle down the palm. It denotes intuitive inspiration or hunches of how things
should be done and very often manifests itself in the ability to solve subconsciously the most
intricate problems with the utmost accuracy.
Mme. Marie Skladowska Curie, the worlds most famous woman scientist, and co-discoverer
of radium, was born in Warsaw, November 1867, and received her early scientific training
from her father. While attending the University at Warsaw she became involved in the student
revolutionary movement and was forced to leave the city, then under Russian rule. She went
first to Cracow and later to Paris, where she took a science degree at the Sorbonne. In 1895 she
married Pierre Curie, professor of physics at that university, and jointly they carried out their
experiments which led to the discovery of radium in 1898. In 1903 they were awarded the Davy
Medal of the Royal Society, and in the same year the Nobel Prize for Physics was divided
between them and Henri Becquerel. In 1905 her husband, Pierre, was elected to the Academy
of Sciences, but in the following year was run over by a dray and instantly killed. Madame
Curie, succeeding her husband to the professorship at the University of Paris, continued their
researches, receiving the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1911. She visited America a number of
times, and in 1921 American friends gave her a gram of radium and a thirty-five hundred dollar
annuity in recognition of her great services to science. The annuity was intended to relieve her
personal financial straits, since her income is sufficient only for the barest necessities, but
Madame Curie, instead of devoting this money to her own needs, used it to rent a gram of
radium for a cancer hospital in Warsaw, her native city. At present, despite her advanced age,
she personally directs the Curie Radium Institute which the French government built in the
Latin Quarter, and there works over her bench all day and far into the night. Unlike many
women who have devoted their lives to science, she has combined home and career, has reared
two daughters, is an excellent housekeeper, and is proud of her domestic accomplishments.

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MME. MARIE CURIE

Mme. Marie Curie, co-discoverer of radium, greatest of all women scientists, co-winner of
the Nobel Prize, as notable a woman as she is a scientist

46

GABRIELE D'ANNUNZIO

The line of romance

The lines of romance and passion are the two lines found at the bottom of the palm beginning
on either side of the hand and joining the line of destiny. They indicate a career likely to abound
in adventure, romance, and turbulent passion.
Gabriele DAnnunzio, Prince of Montenevoso, brilliant poet and writer and the national hero
of Italy, was born on March 12, 1863, at Pescara, in the Abruzzi region of Italy. The house
where he was born has since been declared a national monument. He showed his poetic and
literary inclinations at an early age, and when he was sixteen he published his first work. After
studying at the Cicognini College at Prato, in Tuscany, he came to Rome, settling there in 1881
and entering journalism. A vast number of books, most of them translated into every modern
language, began to appear: The Dead City, La Gioconda, Francesco da Rimini, and many others.
His love affair with Italys greatest actress, Eleanora Duse, was the talk of the day. In his plays
he celebrated her, until one day The Flame of Life was published in which he created the
scandal of the age and almost killed the immortal Duse. In 1915 the literary genius, the lover
and dandy, suddenly became a patriot, and his speech in the shadow of the royal palace brought
Italy into the war on the side of the Allies. At the age of fifty-two he became commandant of
an air squadron, and in the last year of the war he made a spectacular air raid over Vienna,
dropping two hundred thousand leaflets, calling upon the people to free themselves from the
Hapsburg yoke and pointing out that he could just as easily have dropped bombs. It was after
the Armistice that DAnnunzio carried out the most dramatic undertaking of his extraordinary
career. The Allies refused to give Fiume, the great Adriatic port, to Italy. The poet, at the head
of a body of volunteers, mostly boys of twenty or twenty-one, in defiance of the peace
agreements, his own government, and in the presence of inter-allied forces, seized the town
and, like a medieval ruler, held the city until Christmas Day, 1920, when acting on Premier
Giolittis orders, an Italian war vessel bombarded the town and wounded him. He yielded, but
as a result of his revolt Italy finally got the city. Since that time he has led a secluded existence
at Gardone, near Brescia, in a villa called by him the Vittoriale in memory of the victory of
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the great war. In 1924 the King made him Prince of Montenevoso, and the state, at an expense
of $250,000, under the patronage of the King and Mussolini, is bringing out an edition de luxe
of all his works.
GABRIELE DANNUNZIO

Gabriele DAnnunzio, Italy's famous romantic, seizer of Fiume, author of many startling
books, adventurer, poet, patriot

48

CLARENCE DARROW

The star of eloquence

The star of eloquence is found on the tip of the fourth finger and denotes a power of eloquence
which, by its logic and simplicity, never fails to hold its listeners.
Clarence Seward Darrow, great criminal lawyer and champion of the oppressed whose
eloquence is probably more persuasive than that of any other man now alive, was born in
Kinsman, Ohio, April 18, 1857, the son of a clergyman. He received a public-school education,
studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1878. Beginning to succeed in the law, he
abandoned a profitable connection with the Chicago & Northwestern Railway Company in
order to defend Eugene V. Debs and his fellow conspirators in the great railroad strike of 1893.
From that day on, he has been in the center of the legal arena whenever it involved human
rights. He has exhibited a burning passion for lost causes wherever he felt that justice was
threatened by the might of the majority. It was this sympathy with unpopular causes which led
him to defend so many labor cases, and it was his instinctive resistance to anything which
seemed to impair individual freedom that induced him to take up the fight against the Tennessee
Anti-Evolution Law. Although when the Scopes case started in 1925 there was some reluctance
to enlist Darrows assistance because it was reported that he was an atheist, he is in point of
fact not an atheist, but an agnostic. I doubt where many ignorant men claim to know, is his
definition of agnosticism. But if Darrow doubts immortality, his ethics are those of a believer
in the Golden Rule. As a criminal lawyer he has always opposed the biblical axiom an eye for
an eye, maintaining that heredity and environment were the reasons for most of the crimes
committed today, especially murder. Therefore the responsibility, in his belief, cannot be laid
directly at the door of the unfortunate criminal. He has defended many persons without fee,
and he is proudest, perhaps, of the cases that are little known outside of the community where
they have occurred. In the courtroom or on the lecture platform, he is most impressive. He
dominates by sheer intellectual power, and his manner, when he is not roused in debate, is one
of courteous consideration marked by a dry sense of humor. He can pour oil upon the troubled
waters of a courtroom as easily as he can annihilate an adversary with his piercing satire. His
49

greatest interest outside the law is writing. He has published a number of essays, short stories,
a novel, and recently an autobiography, The Story of My Life, which has been widely read and
admired.
CLARENCE DARROW

Clarence Darrow, as distinguished a criminal lawyer as America has produced, champion of

the oppressed, espouser of lost causes, a man in the finest traditions of American life

50

GENERAL CHARLES G. DAWES

The line of profound concentration

The line of profound concentration starts at the side of the hand under the first finger and runs
across the palm, slightly curving at the end. It denotes a striking ability to concentrate
profoundly on the one thing at hand.
General Charles G. Dawes, who, through his brilliant versatility, has attained success in many
lines of endeavor, was born in Marietta, Ohio, August 27, 1865, the son of Brigadier General
Rufus R. Dawes, Commander of the Iron Brigade of Wisconsin during the Civil War. In 1887
General Dawes entered the practice of law in Lincoln, Nebraska, and soon became one of the
leading attorneys in that state. Success seems to be his middle name, for no other word so well
describes his career. In each venture he has attemptedin the law, in finance, in the army, in
government, in international affairs, in politics, in the arts of literature and music he has
attained a degree of proficiency and recognition which few specialists in any of them acquire.
During the World War he distinguished himself for his service as General Purchasing Agent
for the American Expeditionary Forces and as a member of the Military Board of Allied Supply,
for which he was decorated by both France and the United States. In politics he first attracted
national notice as a member of the Republican National Executive Committee. In 1924 he was
nominated by the Republican presidential convention as the running mate to President
Coolidge and elected. Upon the completion of his services as Vice-President, he was appointed
by President Hoover as ambassador to the Court of St. Jamess. He is the author of several
books on banking and law. A very interesting side of his life is also his love for music. He still
plays the piano, flute, and piccolo, and has himself composed quite a number of musical
selections, one of them even being adopted by Fritz Kreisler as a part of his concert program.
General Dawes is considered one of the most vigorous and outspoken men in American public
life.

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GENERAL CHARLES G. DANES

General Charles G. Danes, great pioneer, great executive, and great politician

52

EUGENE V. DEBS

The line of all-embracing love

The line of all-embracing love begins on the side of the hand under the fourth linger and runs
across the palm, ending in a fork with one branch underneath the first finger and the other
between the first and second fingers. It indicates a personality capable of the greatest sacrifices
for the betterment of mankind at large.
The line of all-embracing love Few men connected in any way with social revolt have been
more loved and idolized than Eugene Victor Debs. He was born in Terre Haute on November
5, 1855, the son of Daniel and Margaret Betterich Debs, received a common school education,
and then went to work. However, his real education was largely obtained through independent
study, and he was still as keen a student in his declining years as in his youth. He started to
work first as a locomotive fireman for the Terre Haute Indianapolis Railroad, leaving to accept
a position with a wholesale grocery house at Terre Haute, and later to serve as a city clerk there.
In 1885 he was elected a member of the Indiana legislature, at the same time playing a
prominent part in the growing labor movement. From 1893 to 1897 he was president of the
American Railway Union, winning a strike on the Great Northern Railway. While directing
widespread strikes on several Western railroads in 1894, he was charged with conspiracy and
acquitted, and then charged with violation of an injunction and jailed for six months for
contempt of court. It was while serving his sentence that he was visited by the Socialist member
of Congress, Victor Berger. After several talks with him he became a confirmed Socialist and
later the leader of the Socialist organization in America. As leader of the Socialist Party his
policies were often bitterly hated and feared, but there was little personal feeling against Debs
himself. Few failed to admire the personal character of a man they knew to be honest and whose
devotion to his own particular ideals twice put him behind bars. He loomed large in the politics
of the nation as the chief minority representative and was repeatedly the presidential candidate
of his party. In 1918, for his anti-war activities, he was sentenced to ten years in federal prison,
but was released on orders of the late President Harding.

53

EUGENE V. DEBS

Eugene V. Debs, America's best-known exponent of social revolt, a strike leader who was
more revered than disliked

54

EAMON DE VALERA

The line of undaunted determination

The line of undaunted determination begins on the side of the hand underneath the first finger,
touching slightly the line of life, and runs straight across the palm. It signifies boundless energy
and a daring, self- sacrificing determination of purpose.
Eamon de Valera, elected President of the Irish Free State in 1932, has been a patriot to his
followers and an arch rebel to his foes since that historic day in 1916 when he staggered out of
Bolands Mill, bloodstained and powder-blackened and said, I'm De Valera. Shoot me but
spare these men. Born in 1880 in New York, of a Spanish father and an Irish mother, he
returned early in life to Ireland, to receive his education and later to teach mathematics. He
interested himself in the Irish Independence Movement in 1913, and became the real leader of
the Extremists, the fight-to-the-bitter-end faction. He first came into the worlds limelight
during the Easter Rebellion in 1916, after which he fled and was several times reported slain,
but finally turned up when the negotiations with England for the creation of a Free State started.
The history of the Irish Independence Movement, in which De Valera played such a striking
part, viewed him in two distinct roles. From 1916 until January 7, 1922, when the Dail Eireann
ratified the peace treaty with Great Britain which was to result in the establishment of the Free
State, De Valera was leader of all Ireland in the fight for independence, and was a constant
thorn in the side of the British lion. Early in January, 1923, however, the Dail met and ratified
the peace treaty over De Valeras strenuous objections. He resigned as president of the Sinn
Fein Parliament, stood for reelection, but was defeated by Arthur Griffith. From that moment
on, De Valera became the rebel, not only against England, but also against the government
accepted by Ireland. As the leader of the Fianna Fail members of the Dail, De Valera never
ceased his agitation for complete independence, and although in August, 1927, he and his
followers swore allegiance.to the King of England, he declared that the oath was an empty
political formality, having no binding significance, and his reason for submitting to it was the
determination to enter the Dail Eireann as an opponent of the Free State. To him and his
followers the oath to the King means that the Free State is included in the British
55

Commonwealth of Nations, but his desire is that Ireland should be, not merely free, but
independent, and that she should approach Great Britain as an equal.
EAMON DE VALERA

Eamon de Valera, stormy petrel of Ireland, part Spanish, born in New York

56

MARLENE DIETRICH

The lines of eye magnetism

The lines of eye magnetism are found at the base of the first finger, extending from what is
known as the line of heart. They reflect a magnetic personality and eloquent eyes, both present
in this glamorous actress.
Marlene Dietrich, famous screen actress, was born December 27, 1904, in Weimar, Germany.
Her father, Deuart von Losch, was a German nobleman and a first lieutenant in the German
army. She displayed great talent from her early childhood and at the age of twelve was able to
speak German, French, and English fluently. It was her early ambition to become a concert
violinist, but an injury to her left wrist halted this career, and she turned to the stage. She had
been playing small parts for some time when Joseph von Sternberg, who brought her to
America, was in Berlin looking for a leading lady to play opposite Emil Jannings in The Blue
Angel. He saw her in a performance of a play called Two Cravats, where she attracted his
attention by her sound acting and her ability to speak English. Since her advent in America she
has taken her place in the rank of the foremost stars. Her pictures have included, besides The
Blue Angel, such romantic dramas as Shanghai Express and Morocco. Compared by many
critics with Greta Garbo, whom she resembles in certain ways, Marlene Dietrich has developed
her own unique style of acting and has built up a vast following in her own right. It is not so
well known that she is also a singer of great charm and ability, her phonograph records being
best-sellers throughout Europe. One of her main attractions seems to lie in her eyes, for if ever
an actress was able to convince an audience that the essence of beauty is a gaze profound and
haunting, complex and provocative, it is this young German film star. No one who ever watched
her deep, puzzling, meditative eyes staring straight ahead can ever forget them, and like all
beautiful and solemn things, that absorbed gaze seems timeless. She can do more with a single
gesture or a glance of icy detachment than most actresses can achieve by temperamental
outbursts.

57

MARLENE DIETRICH

Marlene Dietrich, German actress and singer, internationally famous, setter of a new style in
acting

58

PAUL DOUMER

The break in the line of heart

The break in the line of heart, as seen on this palm, denotes some sudden terrific shock and
desperate anxiety that the owner has gone through.
His Excellency, President Paul Doumer of France, whose life story and tragic death read like a
romance, was born in the village of Aurillac, France, on March 22, 1857, the son The break in
the line of heart of a railroad worker who died on the very day Paul was born. The furnished
room in which the child, destined to be the thirteenth President of France, arrived was rented
at one dollar a month. Soon after, his mother moved to Paris, where she opened a little shop in
the Montmartre Quarter. At the age of eleven he began to earn his own living, becoming an
apprentice to a manufacturer of medals. Every night, after his daily labors in the medal shop,
he studied diligently at home, reading and studying scientific books. Sometimes he would fall
asleep over his booksthen his mother would place a moist handkerchief on his forehead, and
the little apprentice boy would go bravely to work again. He studied so hard and with such
good effect that at the age of fifteen he passed the Bachot with notable credit to himself. At
the age of eighteen he was appointed a school teacher at Remiremont, in Lorraine. Sometime
later, he decided on a political career, and since the best gateway to politics in France is the
legal profession, he spent most of his spare time studying law. At twenty-two he was made
editor of a party newspaper in the Aisne, and in 1888, at the age of thirty-one, was first elected
to the Chamber of Deputies. At thirty-eight he was appointed Minister of Finance in Leon
Bourgeoiss radical cabinet, where he distinguished himself by his grasp of financial matters.
Later, appointed Governor General of Indo-China, he displayed remarkable ability as an
administrator. On his return to France he was again elected to the Chamber, and a few years
later was made president of the Chamber of Deputies. It was while occupying this office that
he became a candidate for the presidency, but was defeated by Fallieres in the presidential
election of 1906. During the World War he held various posts, and not the least of his
contributions to France was the loss of four of his sons, who died on the field of honor. In May,
1931, while serving as president of the Senate, he again became a candidate for the presidency
59

of France and, defeating Aristide Briand, took office on May 13, 1931. On May 6, 1932. he
was assassinated by a Russian doctor, terminating a career of brilliant public service.
PAUL DOUMER

Paul Doumer, thirteenth President of France, who earned his living at eleven, at eighteen was
a school teacher, at thirty-eight Minister of France, and at seventy-five murdered by a
Russian doctor

60

ISADORA DUNCAN

The line of fate

The line of fate is found running through the hand as a single line directly to the base of the
second finger, and signifies that the person bearing it is likely to become a plaything of fate. It
is difficult for such persons to control their own lives, and the things which happen to them are
mainly due to the force of circumstances over which they have no control.
Isadora Duncan, uniquely a child of fate, with many tragedies crossing the path of her life, was
born in San Francisco on May 27, 1878, and began her career as a dancer at the age of seventeen
at Dalys Theater in New York, where she danced the part of a fairy in A Midsummer Nights
Dream. Her early years were full of poverty and hardships. With only a few dollars, she went
to Europe on a cattle boat and almost starved before she finally won recognition on the
European stages. Early in life she had conceived the idea of interpretative dancing to awaken
the world to the grace and meaning of nature. She devoted many hours to studying Greek vases
in various museums and later, amid the ruins of the classical Greek theaters, she meditated on
the dances of old Greece, and worked out her rhythmic movements of wind and waves. Her
interpretations of these classical dances were so old that to an ultra-modern world, accustomed
to the artificiality of modern dancing, they were startlingly new. She swept across the stages of
Europe, acclaimed and hailed in triumph wherever she appeared. When she returned to her
native country she was received with great enthusiasm, even performing upon the stage of the
Metropolitan Opera itself. She established a new school of classical dancing, where she taught
her art to girls who later became known as the Duncan girls. Always eccentric by nature, she
aroused conventionally minded persons by her erratic actions, which became more marked
after an automobile tragedy in Paris when her two children were drowned. After the great war,
upon the invitation of Lenin, she went to Moscow, where she opened a school of dancing in
the confiscated palace of a former nobleman. Her unhappy matrimonial venture with the
eccentric young Russian poet, Serge Yessenin, who later committed suicide, followed. The last
years of her life were pitifully tragic and finally came to their culmination in her death on

61

September 14, 1927. She was killed while riding in her automobile, when her flowing veil was
caught in a wheel of the car, wound itself around her neck, and choked her to death.
ISADORA DUNCAN

Isadora Duncan, internationally famous dancer, born in San Francisco, a child of fate
overshadowed by tragedy

62

AMELIA EARHART

The lines of dauntless courage

The lines of dauntless courage are found extending from what is known as the line of head and
running into the base of the first finger. They signify dauntless courage and great mental daring.
Amelia Earhart Putnam, the only woman ever to fly over the Atlantic twice, the second time in
a spectacular solo flight from Newfoundland to Ireland, was born on July 24, 1899, at Atchison,
Kansas and lived there until she reached high-school age. Her father was a prosperous railroad
attorney whose business kept him on the move, and she studied in many schools and in many
places. When the United States entered the war, she was attending school in a suburb of
Philadelphia. Her sympathies were aroused by seeing four soldiers on crutches when she was
visiting her sister in Toronto, whereupon she dropped school and began training under the
Canadian Red Cross. Her first assignment was at Spadina Military Hospital in Canada. After
the war Miss Earhart joined her parents in Los Angeles, and it was there that she first became
actively interested in aviation. By 1920 she had established the womans record for altitude.
She was also the first woman to whom an international pilots license was issued. After some
time in California she decided to return to the East, where she took a summer course at Harvard
University and later joined her sister in teaching and settlement work in Boston. In June, 1928,
she left Boston as a passenger in the seaplane Friendship with the late Wilmer Stultz as pilot
and Lou Gordon as radio operator and mechanic. After a flight lasting twenty hours and fortynine minutes, during which they exhausted almost every drop of their gasoline, Stultz brought
the plane down at Burry Port, Wales, on June 18th. Although she did not pilot the plane on that
voyage, she won the distinction of being the first woman to fly the Atlantic in a heavier-thanair plane. Following her transatlantic hop, she became aviation editor of Cosmopolitan
Magazine, but between business engagements found time to make several flights. Her solo
flight across the United States in the fall of 1928 was the first to be made by a woman, and the
following year she took part in the women's derby from Los Angeles to Cleveland as a part of
the National Air Races. In 1931, she toured the country in an auto-gyro, but her ambition was

63

to make a solo flight over the Atlantic. This was realized when she made her spectacular flight
on May 21, 1932, flying from St. John's to Londonderry, Ireland.
AMELIA EARHART

Amelia Earhart, premier woman aviator, only woman to fly the Atlantic alone.

64

THOMAS A. EDISON

The star of inventive genius

The star of inventive genius is found in the center of the palm midway between the third and
fourth fingers and signifies strong indications of inventive genius.
Thomas Alva Edison, who left the imprint of his genius in some form on every modern
invention except the airplane, was born in Milan, Ohio, February 11, 1847, and in his youth
violated virtually every rule in the typical American success formula, except twohe was poor
and he worked hard. Some of his violations of the code are worth mentioning. He quit school
as soon as possible and was at the foot of the class as long as he remained. He chewed and
smoked. He was careless of his personal appearance. He was discharged frequently from
various jobs. He turned his inventive talent in his early years to cheating his employers out of
working time. He was careless of personal property, and a number of times endangered lives
with his chemical experiments. He scoffed at persons who insisted upon getting the
conventional eight hours of sleep, and yet, with all these conventional shortcomings, no man
in the last fifty years more influenced the daily habits of the peoples of the world. It was Edison
who supplanted the flickering lamp and the sputtering candle with a steady, clean, incandescent
bulb, and it was he who put music into a wooden box and transmitted it by vibration. Since his
first patent was issued in October, 1868, in the sixty years of his career as an inventor, the
records show that he has taken out over twelve hundred patents in his name. Following his
invention of the incandescent lamp in 187^, a gradual appreciation of what he was doing
reached the public consciousness. He stood as a factor of tremendous influence in the world,
not only as a giver of light, safety, and comfort, but as a great industrial hero in an industrial
age. Of all our heroes, no one better typifies the opportunities which lie before the youth of
America, despite handicaps which may surround them, than Edison. Edison was one of the
chief founders of the Machine Age, and inasmuch as technic is the material basis of all
civilization, Edison, wholly self-taught and creating from within himself, was a king in the
realm of technology, and has done more for the progress of humanity than all the conquerors
combined. His genius bestowed upon the human race blessings instead of bondage, service
65

instead of serfdom, and construction instead of conquest. His name will not be forgotten for
centuries to come.
THOMAS A. EDISON

Thomas A. Edison, greatest inventor of our days who left the electric light, the phonograph,
and electric power behind him as a memorial

66

ALBERT EINSTEIN

The lines of scientific genius

The lines of scientific genius are three short lines found at the top of the palm, midway between
the third and fourth lingers. They portray a keen, analytical mind and a brilliant ability for
scientific research.
Professor Albert Einstein, who has devoted his life to developing a scientific theory which only
a dozen men could understand, and who succeeded in captivating the imagination of the world
with one word Relativitywas born of Jewish parents on March 14, 1879, in the quaint
city of Ulm, Germany.
When he was fifteen his family moved to Milan. By then Albert had already a distaste for
customary school studies and was reading Kant (his favorite philosopher), Nietzsche, and
Schopenhauer, and studying mathematics. In 1896 he entered the Polytechnicum at Zurich,
graduating in 1900 and becoming a Swiss citizen. Sickness in the family and business reverses
left him in straitened circumstances. and he had a hard struggle to make a living by tutoring
and later working in the patent office. In 1909 he became a privy lecturer at the University of
Bern, establishing himself as an international figure. Later he went to the University of Prague,
where he remained a year before returning to Zurich. Eventually he was called to the Academy
of Sciences at Berlin, where he had the privilege, but not the obligation, of instructing classes.
Although he reached a high place among the world of scientists at the age of twenty-six, when
he published his theory of relativity concerning gravitation and light rays, it was not until the
final proof of his findings, made during the solar eclipse of 1919, that he became world-famous
and was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics (1921). He continued to develop his aim of
summarizing all natural laws in a single, comprehensive formula, and after ten years of work,
most of it in his little tower in Berlin, he published the third part of his theory, The Unified
Field Theory, in 1929. Aside from his scientific genius, his traits are candor, wit, simplicity,
and an open mind for every human accomplishment. During the war he was a pacifist and
aroused considerable hostility in Berlin, where anti-Semitic elements staged hostile
demonstrations against him. He was also one of the early leaders of the Zionist Movement in
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Palestine. Despite his own contention that he is merely a physicist, he is looked upon as a
philosopher, an artist, a humanitarian who takes an eager interest in aiding not only his own
race but that of mankind at large.
ALBERT EINSTEIN

Albert Einstein, whose theory of relativity has changed the aspects of modern science, winner
of the Nobel Prize for Physics, philosopher, artist, and humanitarian as well as scientist

68

DOUGLAS FAIRBANKS

The line of vitality

The line of vitality is found inside the line of life, opposite the thumb, and denotes great vitality
and enthusiasm.
Douglas Fairbanks, whose athletic prowess and real acting ability, combined with a fascinating
smile and the competence of his film work, have made him one of the greatest heroes in motion
pictures, was born in Denver, Colorado, May 23, 1884. His father was a New York lawyer who
went West to look after some mining property and stayed there. Doug made his first leap
early. At the age of two he tumbled from the roof of a shed ten feet to the ground and received
a gash in the forehead. He went through his earlier years on the jump, leaping from one task to
another, one job to something wholly different, until he settled definitely on the stage, and
subsequently on the screen, as his career. The elder Fairbanks was a profound Shakespearean
scholar, and the study of the poets dramas was included in Douglass earliest curriculum. He
learned whole pages by heart and recited Hamlet with characteristic vigor and enthusiasm.
When he was seventeen the family moved back to New York, and with Shakespeare at his
fingertips it was only natural that he should turn to the stage. Thinking that a college education
might help him advance in his profession, young Fairbanks intended to go to Harvard. He
lacked sufficient credits from the Denver schools and the Colorado School of Mines he had
attended to qualify, and so started a special student course which he soon gave up. His career
on the stage was not very successful in the beginning, and he gave it up a number of times,
working in turn in a bond house and a hardware store. For a time he studied law. Under the
management of William A. Brady and later George M. Cohan, he appeared in many successful
stage plays making his debut in films under the direction of D. W. Griffith, who offered him
two thousand dollars a week for ten weeks to face the camera in The Lamb. From then on his
reputation spread rapidly, and at one time his net income from picture interests exceeded a
million dollars a year. Fairbankss success is largely due to his being the first star to employ a
fast tempo in screen acting. Previously all screen movements were slowmuch slower than
actual lifebut Fairbanks reversed all this. He played in his usual zip-bang style despite the
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protests of his cameraman, combining acrobatics with genuine acting in a mixture that the
public welcomed from the start. He married twice, his second wife being Mary Pickford.
DOUGLAS FAIRBANKS

Douglas Fairbanks, the screen exponent of athleticism, as active an actor as the screen has
ever known

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HENRY FORD

The semicircle of mechanical genius

The semicircle of mechanical genius is found underneath the middle finger. It is a very rare
mark signifying world-wide recognition and usually great riches as a result of superlative skill
in mechanics.
Henry Ford was born on July 30, 1863, on a farm at Greenfield, Michigan, a few miles away
from Detroit. His parents were prosperous, well-to-do farmers; nevertheless young Henry did
not escape the hard work that was the lot of a farm boy. As soon as he was able to reason for
himself, he saw, wherever he cast his glance, the grinding toil in the daily life of the farmer.
He began to wonder why the farm, as well as the factory, could not profit by the amazing
development of the machine. From that pondering sprang the germ of an idea, and from the
idea grew one of the greatest industries of the twentieth century. Henry Ford was a born
mechanic, and even his toys were tools. Watches particularly interested him; he was constantly
tinkering with them, and when he was thirteen he achieved the miracle of taking one apart,
putting it together again, and making it keep time. At one time he studied the idea of developing
quantity production of fifty-cent watches, always having the idea of manufacturing on a huge
scale some commodity for which there was a universal demand. But it was the automobile and
not the watch that the young mechanical genius was destined to bring within the reach of the
average pocketbook. He built his first car in 1895. It had two cylinders, developed four
horsepower, had a close resemblance to a buggy, and was regarded everywhere as a nuisance,
with crowds flocking about it and holding up traffic. In 1903 he organized and incorporated
the Ford Motor Company, producing and selling the first year 1,708 cars. Twenty-five years
later the daily average was five times that of the entire production of the first year. Beginning
with the construction of the huge factory in Highland Park in 1909, his company expanded
rapidly, spreading all over the world. In 1914 he created a sensation by establishing five dollars
as the minimum wage for an eight-hour day. By 1924 financial experts agreed that he was the
worlds richest individuala real billionaire. Henry- Ford, the mechanical genius and
industrial giant, in his political and social activities, although at times conspicuous, has not
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been as successful as in his business enterprises, some of them bringing him ridicule, others,
praise.
HENRY FORD

Henry Ford, prototype to the world of American industrialism, one of the greatest
manufacturers in history, and possibly the richest man alive

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SIGMUND FREUD

The star of brilliant reasoning

The star of brilliant reasoning is found in the center of the palm under the fourth finger and is
a sign of great ability and probable fame in the realm of science and philosophy.
Dr. Sigmund Freud, M. D., LL. D., founder of psycho-analysis, who, with the possible
exception of Einstein, is perhaps the most-talked of scientist alive today, was born of Jewish
parents at Freiberg, Moravia, at present part of the Czecho-Slovakian republic, on May 6, 1856.
Since the age of four he has lived in Vienna, Austria. Deeply influenced by Goethes essay,
"Die Natur, he took up medicine, taking his doctors degree at the University of Vienna in
1881. In 1884 a Viennese physician, Dr. Breuer, related to him an extraordinary experience in
which symptoms of hysteria were cured by getting the patient to recollect in a state of hypnosis
the circumstances of its origin and to express the emotions accompanying it. This method of
treatment was the starting point of what later became known as psycho-analysis. In 1885 Freud
went to Paris to study for over a year in the famous school of Charcot and Janet, brilliant
neurologists and virtual founders of modern abnormal psychology. There he determined to take
the then revolutionary step of investigating neurotic disorders from a psychological angle, and
establishing an entirely new school of thought in the approach to these subjects. What he has
accomplished in this field is history. By his psycho-analytical discoveries he made clear the
meaning of the delusions, dreams, and fantasies of the abnormal mind, showing how they
represented the fulfillment of their suppressed desires. His work gave a key to the significance
of dreams, which up to that time had remained a mystery for thousands of years. Combined
with (he theory of the unconscious, it offered a solution of some of the most baffling problems
of dual personality, affording a new approach to the study of all the products of the human
mind. Psycho-analysis, beginning as a study of the deranged mind, soon found a key to the
understanding; of the normal mind, because it found in insanity normal mental processes
exaggerated in such a way as to force themselves upon the attention of the observer. To the
general public it is probably less the application of psycho-analysis to the abnormal than to the
normal mental phenomena which is of the greatest interest, for it has enabled man to know
himself better, though it may not have made him happier.
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SIGMUND FREUD

Sigmund Freud, psychologist, who has left an indelible stamp on modern thought, has made
dreams matters of extreme moment, and whose teachings have started an entirely new school
of psychological thought

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MOHANDAS K. GANDHI

The triangle of wisdom

The triangle of wisdom is the three lines forming a triangle in the center of the palm. They give
to their possessor a superhuman wisdom and a moral strength which transcends mere physical
force.
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, the Mahatma or great soul of modern historys most
amazing political campaign, was born October 2, 1869, in Parpunder, a small state in India.
The man who now aims at the creation of a new nation of more than three hundred million
lingered at his birthplace only long enough to obtain some preliminary schooling. In
accordance with Hindu custom he was married at the age of thirteen to a bride of the same age,
but at nineteen, after their fourth child was born, they separated and he went to London to study
law, after pledging to his mother that he would avoid meat, women, and falsehood. His
schooling in England failed to impress him with things British, and he remarked later that he
had no desire to carry Western civilization back with him. Gandhis first open blow for home
rule in India was his campaign for non-cooperation. He pleaded with his followers to resist the
salt tax laws, for which he was imprisoned and after two years released. Gandhi is, no doubt,
one of the greatest sages India has ever known. His fight is not only fora free India but also for
a rejuvenation of ancient Hindu civilization and culture. At the present time he is the strongest
influence toward the breakdown of the caste system in India. In his campaign forborne rule, he
advocates non-violent resistance for his followers, The British government of India, to the great
relief of its individual civil servants, has been grudgingly indebted to him time and again for
restraining violence. The marvel of Gandhi is that he has attained such power in spite of what
might be called divine surliness. He has attained this power not by manipulation, but through
his extraordinary exhibition of self-sacrifice. His career demonstrates what he teaches, that love
can be a strong and practical force in the worldeven in the modern world. His is the only
contemporary career that is founded upon self-sacrifice and non-retaliation. This apostle of
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peace, love, and non-violence is a frail shell of a man, weighing less than one hundred pounds.
He wears a single piece of cotton for clothing and lives on five cents a day.
MOHANDAS K. GANDHI

Mohandas K. Gandhi, the ninety-pound Indian patriot, whose sway is the greatest difficulty
in the way of English rule in India

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GRETA GARBO

The line of emotional moods

The line of emotional moods is found encircling the base of the index finger and denotes a
natural gift or talent for emotional expressions, which may be either in drama or music.
Greta Garbo, whose real name is Greta Gustafson, was born in Stockholm on September 18,
1905, of parents in comparatively poor circuiting line of emotional moods stances, and worked
as a soap girl in a Swedish barber shop and a saleslady in a dressmakers establishment before
going on the stage. Her motion-picture career began in Sweden, where she was discovered"
by Eric Petschler, comedy director, and appeared first in a film called Peter the Tramp. Her
performance impressed the late Moritz Stiller, who engaged Miss Gustafson to play in a
number of films and persuaded her to change her name to Garbo. She had already appeared
previously on the legitimate stage in plays of Shakespeare and Schnitzler, but it was her
remarkable photographic personality which she displayed while playing the leading feminine
role in Gosta Berlings Saga that proved an outstanding success in Europe and which brought
her an international reputation. In 1925 Miss Garbo and Stiller were brought under contract to
Hollywood, where her first picture, The Torrent, was an instant success. In her next pictures,
especially in Flesh and the Devil, in which she played opposite John Gilbert, her brilliant
portrayals won her recognition as a star. Her personal fascination and exotic appeal were
enhanced from the beginning by her air of mysterious aloofness and reluctance to talk about
herself, a trait scarcely typical of Hollywood, and little is authentically known of her private
life except that it is a retired existence of a woman who devotes her time to her work and her
studies. Yet almost single-handed she has altered the technique and style of the motion picture,
and is perhaps the greatest screen actress of our generation. Her trip to Europe in 1952, when
she left to revisit her home in Stockholm and to see the country from which she had been so
long absent, received almost as much space in the press of the world as the journey of a
potentate. Her principal ambition is said to be the creation of a theater of her own in Stockholm,
an ambition which her travels may be designed to further.
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GRETA GARBO

Greta Garbo, whose name has become synonymous with glamour in acting, whose reported
expression Ay tank ay go home now" has become part of our language, and who is possibly
the most highly paid of living women

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FLOYD GIBBONS

The line of travel

The line of travel and adventure is the line seen running from what is known as the line of life
toward the side of the hand, ending up in a fork. It denotes a life generally devoted to travel
and adventure.
Floyd Gibbons, war correspondent, author, explorer, and headline hunter extraordinary, whose
"best" has extended to almost every known corner of the world, was born on July 16, 1887, in
Washington, D.C. He began his newspaper career in Minneapolis at the age of twenty, and
although he entered into his work with the fervor of youth, he was soon discharged for
incompetence. Youll never make a newspaper man, the city editor shouted at him as he left.
Nursing his wounded pride, he went West, where he worked at various jobsin a lumber yard,
shoveling coal, loading wheat and, in his spare time, editing the local paper. The charm of rural
life soon wore thin, and he went to Chicago, where he landed a job with a Socialist, paper,
becoming in a few months its assistant managing editor. Finally, in 1912, he found an opening
on the Chicago Tribune, where his work found immediate recognition. Shortly before the
United States entered the World War, he was assigned by the Chicago Tribune to go to London
as its war correspondent. This was on the day that Germany announced the submarine blockade
of the British Isles, and Gibbons, providing himself with a non-sinkable garment, and carrying
a supply of compressed food tablets, booked passage on the S. S. Laconia. She was promptly
torpedoed by a German submarine, and as the boat slowly settled into the sea, Gibbons donned
his life suit and got into a lifeboat filled with terrified passengers. At first he was reported lost
at sea, but he and his companions were picked up by a British vessel and brought to
Queenstown Harbor, Ireland. A few days after his obituary was read in America, the fourthousand-word story of the sinking of the Laconia, which he cabled from Queenstown, created
a sensation all over the world and was read on the floor of the United States Senate. Five weeks
later America entered the war. When the American Expeditionary Forces landed in France.
Gibbons was among the first of the American war correspondents to go to the front with the
American troops, and he remained under fire until the end of the war. At the battle of Chateau79

Thierry he was wounded and lost the sight of his left eye. Since the World War, Gibbons has
participated in at least one war or revolution almost every year, covering rebellions and
uprisings in every nook and corner of the globe.
FLOYD GIBBONS

Floyd Gibbons, war correspondent, radio commentator, explorer, and headline hunter, whose
exploits have covered all continents and many wars

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MAXIM GORKY

The cross of bitterness

The cross of bitterness is found underneath the second finger and denotes a life full of hardships,
suffering, and bitterness.
Maxim Gorky, the most famous Russian writer of his generation, was born on March 2, 1868,
at the city of Nijni-Novgorod, on the shores of the Volga. His real name is Maximovich
Peshkoff, but he assumed the name Maxim Gorky, Maxim, the Bitter, when at the age of
twenty- four he began his literary career with the publication of his first story, Mokar
Tschundra. His pen name is due to the incredibly bitter experiences of his childhood and early
youth, which gave him the closest insight into the life of the miserable, the destitute, and the
hopeless. Left an orphan at the age of nine, homeless, without relatives, for the following fifteen
years he led a shiftless life, tramping over the immense Russian steppes, enduring hunger,
suffering, and misery. Successively he worked at various occupationsas a shoemaker, baker,
and cook on a Volga River steamer. When he was nineteen, disgusted with humanity and
despairing of himself, he attempted suicide, but the bullet passed between his shoulder blades
and did not prove fatal. When his wound healed, he set out, in the company of tramps and
vagabonds, on a walking tour of the southern part of Russia. While working as a cook, he had
been taught to read and write by a fellow worker, and feeling an overwhelming urge to portray
his own bitter experiences, he began to write them down. The result was such an incomparable
picture of life in the lowest strata of humanity that he rapidly became one of the most popular
writers, not only in Russia, but all over the world. He was greeted as the successor to Chekhov,
Dostoievsky, and Tolstoy. The Imperial Russian government imprisoned him in 1905 and then
banished him from the country. In 1906 he came to America for a short trip, but later returned
to Europe, settling on the island of Capri. There he lived in the hope that the climate would
favorably affect his tubercular lungs, from which he had suffered since childhood. With the
outbreak of the war he returned to Russia and, despite his physical disabilities, enlisted and
served on the Austrian battlefront. Associated with the Russian Revolution, but not agreeing
with Lenins theories, he left Russia in 192r. but with the death of Lenin became reconciled to
Bolshevism, and in the spring of 1928 returned to Moscow, where he was met with a welcome
and reception and declared the national folk writer of the Russian people.

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MAXIM GORKY

Maxim Gorky, great Russian writer, vagabond, cook, soldier, and a writer whose pen has no
rival for bitterness

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MATA HARI

The girdle of Venus

The girdle of Venus is found running in the shape of a semicircle on the top of the palm and
denotes an active sensual nature which, in Mata Haris case, found outlet in her sensuous
mysticism and voluptuous dancing. Her line of fate, seen running like a long path toward the
second finger, terminating in a cross, foreshadowed her tragic and violent end.
On the 15th of October, 1917, the republic of France stood the most notorious and yet, at the
same time, most glamorous woman of her age against the wall of the old fortress in Vincennes,
near Paris, and riddled her with bullets. She was the beauty who, through her deadly charm,
had sent a hundred thousand Allied soldiers to their doom, and who came dose to opening the
gates of Paris to the legions of Germany. She was a Dutch girl named Margaret Gertrude Zelle,
born on August 7, 1876, in the little Dutch town of Leeuwarden, who, under the name of Mata
Hari, the Red Dancer, became one of the most cunning and resourceful woman spies in
history. When she was eighteen years old, while visiting The Hague, she met Captain Campbell
MacLeod, a middle-aged soldier who held a commission in the Dutch Colonial Army. They
were married and went to live in Java, where Margaret gained her knowledge of Oriental
religion and customs, which was the basis of her later success as an Oriental dancer. A few
years later she left MacLeod and came to Paris, where she created a sensation by her
interpretations of Javanese dances and where, as a courtesan, she captivated many rich men,
creating a furor wherever she made an appearance. The outbreak of the World War found her
in Berlin, the mistress of the chief of police, Von Jagow, and a spy in the German service. Her
exploits, performed with Satanic cunning, helped her time and again to penetrate great military
secrets, and she is credited with having sent whole regiments of men to their death. When she
was finally caught and condemned, she faced death unafraid and smiling. The legends that have
grown up about her are many, and many books have been written about her personality and her
exploits. Sorting the truths from the myths is difficult, and it will probably be years before the
whole story of Mata Hari will be told.

83

MATA HARI

Mala Hari, the spy whose fame is world-wide, whose exploits have become a legend, and
whose success in her profession is still almost inexplicable

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ADOLF HITLER

The line of uncertain fate

The line of uncertain fate ascends the palm without branches and runs like a lonely path up into
the base of the second finger, signifying that the person whose hand bears it carries a destiny
which will be clouded and uncertain to the end.
Adolf Hitler, leader of the German Fascisti, whose phenomenal rise to the international
spotlight has been as spectacular as the menace of his doctrines is to the stability of presentday Germany, possesses that peculiar type of personality which remains as intangible as most
of his theories. He was born in the Austro-German border town of Braunau in 1890, the son of
a customs official. At the age of thirteen his father died and he was forced to go to work, later
becoming a draftsman in the building trades. Although born in Austria, at heart he always
considered himself a German, and an opportunity to put his sympathies to a practical test
occurred with the World War, when he enlisted in the German army as a private and spent most
of the four years in the trenches. After the Armistice, Hitler was unable to settle down to the
old peacetime routine of Braunau. For a while he continued to ply his trade in the Austrian
province of Styria, but soon drifted back to Germany, settling in Munich, where the
headquarters of the Nazis are established today. There he became active in various political
movements, allied himself with General Ludendorff, and in 1923, in the notorious Beer
Putsch, attempted with him to overthrow the Bavarian government and march on Berlin. The
revolutionaries got no farther than the public square of Munich, where they were ignominiously
routed by the police after a few shots had been fired. Hitler ran to safety but later surrendered
himself and was sentenced to five years imprisonment for high treason. He was released after
serving only a year of the term. Undismayed by the setback, he began to build up a following.
He is an orator of apostolic fervor, and it is significant that most of Germanys five million new
voters in the recent election cast their votes for Hitler's party. Although the many who hear him
addressing a crowd agree as to his personal magnetism when on a platform, that quality deserts
him in a small group. Perhaps he is walling himself up instinctively to protect that inner sense
of insecurity. As political leaders, the difference between Hitler and Mussolini is strikingly
illustrated by one characteristic. Mussolini makes the Fascist! salute by throwing out his hand
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boldly, fingers spread apart. Hitler raises his arm timidly, as though the muscles were cramped,
holding his fingers together.
ADOLF HITLER

Adolf Hitler, leader of the German Nazis, born in Austria but a powerful factor in German
politics, whose influence is growing to be second only to Mussolini's

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HERBERT HOOVER

The lines of engineering genius

The lines of engineering genius are the three short lines found between the V-shaped lines
underneath the third finger, denoting great success as a result of engineering genius. The
triangle seen in the center of Herbert Hoovers hand denotes great administrative ability.
Herbert Clark Hoover, who, from a Quaker farm boy in Iowa, has become one of the bestknown men in the world, was born August 10, 1974, in the village of West Branch, Iowa. His
father, Jesse Hoover, was a blacksmith, and both of his parents were Quakers. When Herbert
was six years of age his father died and his mother began taking in sewing to support the family,
but she too died when he was barely ten years old and the little boy went to live in the home of
his uncle, Dr. John Minthorn, who took him to Newburgh, Oregon, a Quaker settlement. Before
he was seventeen Hoover decided to go to college. An engineer he met interested him in that
profession and also in the new Stanford University, opening that fall, which he entered.
Specializing in geology and mining, he worked his way through college and was graduated
with high honors in May, 1895. He took the first job that came along, pushing ore cars in a
Nevada mine. In 1896 he went to work for Louis Janin, a noted French engineer in San
Francisco, who soon became aware of his unusual ability, and by the time he was twenty-five
he was earning fifteen thousand dollars a year. In 1914 he sprang into public prominence by
directing the credit and transportation activities necessary to return two hundred thousand
stranded Americans from Europe at the outbreak of the war, and later, when the population of
devastated Belgium faced starvation, Hoover took over the job of organizing a tremendous
relief organization of neutral nations to feed the stricken Belgians. In 1917, when the United
States entered the war, he was made Food Administrator by President Wilson and was credited
with keeping the Allied nations fed, despite the submarine blockade. After the Armistice,
Hoovers organization of Americans, by now scattered all over Europe and some parts of Asia,
fought successful battles against famine, plagues, and other ravages of war. In 1920 he was
appointed Secretary of Commerce by President Harding. In 1928 he reached the pinnacle of

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his career with his election as President, and in spite of the critical period his administration
faced, his remarkable organizing and administrative ability has remained undimmed.
HERBERT HOOVER

Herbert Hoover, engineer, administrator, President of the United States

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HARRY HOUDINI

The cross of keen observation

The cross of keen observation is found on the top of the palm, between the second and third
fingers, denoting a keen sense of observation and a daring, fearless nature.
Harry Houdini, possibly the greatest magician of our times, who for years enthralled the public
by his mystifying performances, and whose feats have baffled everyone through The cross of
keen observation their suggestion of the uncanny and supernatural, was born in Apple- ton,
Wisconsin, on April 6, 1874, the son of a clergyman, Dr. Meyer Samuel Weiss, and given the
name of Ehrich.
Beginning as a trapeze performer in 1882, he adopted then the stage name under which he
became famous, making many tours around the world and performing before many rulers and
notables.
His daredevil feats and his almost superhuman physical endurance thrilled and amazed great
audiences. His mystifying escapes from manacles, straitjackets, prison cells, from a living
grave six feet in the earth, and from a heavy packing case carefully nailed together by experts,
weighted, and tossed into the sea, even now remain baffling mysteries.
What was the secret of these feats of wonder? His art, no doubt, included many secrets, and
most of them he took along into his grave. But the main idea, as he explained, lay in two
principles. My chief task, he said, has been to conquer fear. When Im stripped and
manacled, nailed securely within a weighted case and thrown into the sea, it is necessary for
me to preserve absolute serenity of spirit. I have to work with great delicacy and lightning
speed. If I go panicky Im lost, and if something goes wrong, if there is some little accident or
mishap, some slight miscalculation, Im lost, unless all of my faculties are working, free from
mental tension or strain. The public sees only the thrill of the accomplished trick, but little does
it know of the tortuous preliminary self-training that is necessary to conquer fear.
Harry Houdini, although universally known as a great mystifier, was himself a skeptic, and
added new laurels to his fame by his thrilling exposures of famous spiritualistic mediums.
He died in Detroit, on October 31, 1926, at the age of fifty-two.

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HARRY HOUDINI

Harry Houdini, most brilliant of modern magicians, exposer of famous spiritualistic

mediums, whose own feats often bordered on the supernatural

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BOBBY JONES

The line of mental and muscular coordination

The line of mental and muscular coordination is the upward curve extending from what is
known as the line of head, which begins under the first finger and runs straight across the palm.
This curve denotes perfect concentration and unusual coordination of mind and muscle.
Robert Tyre Jones, Jr., undisputed king of all golfdom, was born in Atlanta, Georgia, March
17, 1902. He was a frail and sickly child, and family physicians at one time despaired of his
life. When he was five years old an attending physician told his father that he would have to
get the boy out in the open and keep him there if he expected to keep life in his frail body. He
was given a tiny set of golf clubs and taken to a golf course. There began his career as a golfer.
By the time he was eight he had developed such a fine swing and was getting such prodigious
distance on his tee shots that he entered as a contender in the Georgia Junior Championship for
boys ranging in age up to eighteen years. He won this championship twice in succession. By
the time he was fourteen he had won the Georgia State Amateur Championship. Later he went
to Marion, where he led the qualifying field for the National Amateur for eighteen holes,
winning two matches. In 1917, at the age of fifteen, he won the Southern Amateur
Championship, repeating this performance again and again in the following years until, in 1924,
he won the National Amateur Championship by defeating George Von Elm. In 1926, at twentyfour, he won for the second time the United States Open Championship and his first British
Open. His greatest year came in 1930, when he captained the Walker Cup team that won with
spectacular ease the British Open, the British Amateur, and the two American major
tournaments. Bets as high as fifty to one were offered against his accomplishing such an
extravagant feat. By that time, feeling that there were no more golf worlds to conquer, he
announced his retirement from competitive golf. He had made the most brilliant record in
golfing history; he was considered by many the greatest golfer who ever lived. Admitted to the
Georgia bar in 1928, he now practises law in Atlanta, Ga.

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BOBBY JONES

Bobby Jones, greatest golfer of our time, winner at twenty-four of the United States Open and
British Open Championships

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HELLEN KELLER

The stars of unusual faculties

The. stars of unusual faculties are seen on the tips of all these fingers and indicate such an acute
sense of touch that it is possible actually to see, hear, and talk through them.
Helen Keller, the most famous deaf and blind person in the world, was born in Tuscumbia,
Alabama, June 27, 1880. A bright, healthy baby, she had learned to walk, and was learning to
talk, when, at the age of nineteen months, she was taken seriously ill with brain fever. After the
illness left her, she was discovered to be totally and irrevocably blind, deaf, and dumb. At the
age of seven she was taken in charge by Miss Ann Sullivan, who has never since left her, and
for the last forty-five years has been her constant companion. The story of her untiring efforts
and unselfish devotion is one of the brightest chapters in the dismal history of the blind. Here
was a girl, blind, deaf, and dumb, who, by some miracle, learned to see, hear, and talk through
her hands, who had found the use of her intelligence and had used it to such good purpose that
she had earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in a higher institution of learning, with special
mention for excellence in English literature. By it she demonstrated for all time that the blind,
deaf, and dumb need not necessarily, by reason of the curtailment of their primary senses, be
classed as idiotsas the law had so long termed them. In the years following her graduation
from college, she wrote a number of books which were published and sold widely, and traveled
and lectured all over the world. Although her whole life has been a struggle to come as near to
self-reliance as her limitations would permit her, she is essentially gay, spirited, and sturdy.
Inevitably she must know moments of the most intolerable depression, more so in that no sight
or sound can penetrate to distract her, but such moods she hides and permits no one to pity her.
Miss Keller has participated in every major movement for the uplift of the blind, delivering
lectures in every state in the Union, Canada, and Europe, and has herself been the subject of
endless scientific experiment and philosophical speculation. Few persons have ever had to
battle such handicaps as hers; few persons have ever achieved such a triumphant victory over
them. Her whole life, which might have been a mute tragedy, has been turned, by the efforts of

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her own uncompromising will, into brilliant triumph. She has become not only a symbol but
an inspiration.
HELEN KELLER

Hellen Keller, deaf and blind, an inspiration to all afflicted persons; author, lecturer, and
educator

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RUDYARD KIPLING

The lines of poetic genius

The lines of poetic genius are the three lines crossing each other underneath the third finger,
and are often seen on the hands of gifted poets.
Rudyard Kipling, Britains great patriotic poet and Nobel Prize winner in literature, was born
in December 30, 1865, in Bombay, India, and passed his early years in Lahore, a great British
military administrative center, capital of the Punjab, a focal point for the infinitely varied life
of India, where his father, John Lockwood Kipling, was art director and curator of the Museum.
Rudyard was later sent to England to be educated, where his school days were spent at the
United Service College, Devonshire, an institution reserved for the sons of Britishers holding
official posts in Britains far-flung empire. It was there that he began to learn the art of storytelling. He read everything, including the headmasters and chaplains libraries. At night in the
dormitory he was often called upon to tell yarns, and when his memory, which, for the written
word, was prodigious, gave out, he had to invent. He revived the school magazine and wrote
four fifths of the contents himself. After graduation he returned to India, where he worked first
as a cub reporter on a Lahore newspaper and then as a sub-editor for the Pioneer at Allahabad.
At Allahabad the first of those verses and stories which were to make him rich and famous
were written. At the age of twenty-one he published his first book of verse, Departmental
Ditties, which was an instant success, and from then on his books came out at the rate of one
or two a year. Each was a literary event and sold enormously. A pre-war world, hungry for the
Kipling glamour, color, and magic, could not get enough of them. After the war his output
became smaller until it almost ceased. The great majority of the British public consider Kipling
as the greatest English poet since Tennyson, but ironically enough politics prevented his proper
official recognition. Although he was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1906, the much-coveted
recognition of poetical genius granted by the British Governmentthat of Poet Laureatewas
denied him for certain political references in his work. At present, nearing the age of sixty-six,
he lives a retired life at his home in Bur- wash, Sussex, England. By now he is an almost
legendary figure, one of Englands greatest writers, a man who has influenced the political and
literary thought of his time as few men have ever done.
95

RUDYARD KIPLING

Rudyard Kipling, Nobel Prize winner, voice of England in world literature, writer of
legendary stature

96

SINCLAIR LEWIS

The cross of keen observation

The cross of keen observation is found underneath the third finger and denotes a keen sense of
observation combined with ability to put onto paper the things observed.
Sinclair Lewis, the first American author to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, ranking
now with George Bernard Shaw, Rudyard Kipling, Thomas Mann, Anatole France, and others,
was born in Sauk Center, Minnesota, on February 7, 1885. His father, Edwin J. Lewis, a country
doctor, was of Connecticut stock descended from Welsh ancestors. His mother, Emma Kermott,
was Canadian. At seven he determined to be a writer. When he was fourteen he wrote his first
story, but it was four years later before he succeeded in selling any of his work. After three
years at Yale he left to join Upton Sinclairs Utopian Radical Colony in New Jersey. He became
the janitor of Helicon Halla job which gave him plenty of leisure for writing, for every
member of the colony was assigned to some form of menial work. When he tired of Helicon
Hall he came to New York and lived in a tenement in the gas house district and then returned
to Yale for his final year. After graduation he became a reporter for an Iowa paper. For a
number of years he drifted about, selling a story here and there and working on various jobs as
a reporter, reader, investigator for a charity society, and publicity man. He wrote his first novel,
Our Mr. Wrenn, in 1914. On the strength of it he was appointed editor of Adventure Magazine
and later sold some of his short stories to the Saturday Evening Post. After another adventure
book called The Trail of the Hawk, he turned to sociological novels and produced The Job in
1917. After concentrating a year on his next book, he finally wrote Main Street, which became
the literary sensation of 1920. Then followed Babbitt, an intense study of an American business
man, Elmer Gantry, the story of a dissolute preacher, and Arrowsmitk, the study of a young
doctor. In 1931 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. His work has influenced
contemporary American thought in many ways, and he has contributed a word to the language:
Babbitt.

97

SINCLAIR LEWIS

Sinclair Lewis, first American author to receive the Nobel Prize, flayer of certain American
types in Main Street Babbitt," and other books

98

CHARLES A. LINDBERGH

The star of immortal glory

The star of immortal glory is found underneath the third finger on what is called the line of
fortune and signifies a personality able under the proper circumstances to gain and hold
immortal fame and glory.
Colonel Charles Augustus Lindbergh, who became the nation's idol and the aviation hero of
the entire world by his solo flight to Paris, was born in Detroit, Michigan, February 4, 1902,
the son of Evangeline Lodge Lindbergh and Charles A. Lindbergh, who later served as
congressman from Minnesota. Most of his early life was spent in Little Falls, Minnesota, and
at Washington, D. C., where the family lived during the congressional sessions and where he
obtained his early schooling, later attending the University of Wisconsin for two years. At the
end of that time he gave up his college education and decided to become an aviator. He enrolled
at a flying school in Lincoln, Nebraska, later buying an aged army plane with which he did
barnstorming stunts all over the country. In 1924 he entered the army flying school at
Brooksfield, Texas, where he completed his training and was commissioned as a captain of the
reserve forces, later securing a position as an air mail pilot. He flew the air mail from St. Louis
to Chicago, flying mostly by night over this dangerous route, and it was then he conceived the
idea of the Paris non-stop flight. He first attracted the attention of the country when he flew
from San Diego to New York with one stop at St. Louis and then, on the morning of May 20,
1927, with practically no publicity, headed his plane toward Paris and fame. On the evening of
May 21st word was flashed to the world that he had landed at Le Bourget Field in the suburbs
of Paris. After his return from Paris he made a national tour of 22,000 miles, visiting seventytwo cities, and then flew from Washington to Mexico City without a stop, becoming the
countrys good- will ambassador. It was there that he first made the acquaintance of his future
wife, Anne Spencer Morrow, second daughter of the then United States ambassador to Mexico,
the late Dwight W. Morrow. On May 27, 1929, Anne Morrow became Colonel Lindbergh's
wife, and on June 22, 1930, a son was born to the Lindberghs at the home of Mrs. Lindberghs
parents in Englewood. On March 1, 1932, the entire world was shocked by an unspeakable
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crime, that of the kidnapping of Colonel Lindberghs twenty-months-old son, Charles Augustus,
Jr. On May 12th the body of the murdered child was found, plunging the entire world into
mourning.
CHARLES A. LINDBERGH

Charles A. Lindbergh, whose lone flight across the Atlantic made him America's idol and the
world's most famous aviator

100

SIR THOMAS LIPTON

The triangle of superior sportsmanship

The triangle of superior sportsmanship is found underneath the first linger, denoting superior
sportsmanship combined, in Sir Thomas Tiptons case, through the modification of the other
lines of his palm, with brilliant business ability.
Sir Thomas Tipton, internationally known merchant, and one of the best loved men in the
sporting world, was born at Glasgow, Scotland, of Irish parents, May 10, 1850. His people,
leaving Ireland for Scotland during the potato famine, opened a small grocery store in Glasgow,
but were hardly able to eke out a living from it, and young Thomas was forced to go to work
at an early age. At seventeen he came to America, where in a few years he amassed the
magnificent sum of five hundred dollars. With this money and new ideas he went back to
England, opening up a small general store out of which was to grow the tremendous chain of
Lip- ton, Ltd., Stores. Since the British are the greatest nation of tea drinkers in the world, Sir
Thomas early began specializing in various brands of this commodity. Later, deciding to grow
his own supply, he went to Ceylon, to purchase plantations, and Liptons Tea became famous
all over the world. By 1902 he was made a baronet, after being knighted in 1898. In his early
struggles he had paid little attention to anything but business. He had not had time for recreation,
but when he made the discovery that he was a rich man, and that it was unnecessary for him to
devote his entire life to work, he searched out a way to play. He became interested in yachting,
and his one greatbut never realizedambition was that of wresting the America Cup from
the United States, which he attempted five times. Although he failed in this, he succeeded in
establishing a worldwide reputation for sportsmanship which received acknowledgment after
his last defeat with Shamrock V, in 1930, when Mayor Walker of New York gave him a cup
on behalf of his American admirers. Sir Thomas Lipton never married. He was noted for his
devotion to his mother, whom he took as his guiding star and to whom he ascribed his great
success. He died in 1931 in London, at the ripe age of eighty-one, leaving behind an industrial
and sporting tradition which are equally great.

101

SIR THOMAS LIPTON

Sir Thomas Lipton, tea merchant, whose struggles for the America Cup have made yatchting
history

102

SIR OLIVER LODGE

The mystic cross

The mystic cross is found in the center of the palm between the lines of head and heart and
denotes a natural inclination toward mysticism and occultism of all kinds.
Sir Oliver Lodge, the great scientist who startled the world by announcing his belief in
communication with the dead, was born at Penkhull, England, on June 12,1851, the son of a
pottery merchant. At an early age he showed an unusual interest in science, and at the age of
six would spend many hours at his small wayside station waiting for the train to stop, so that
he might get close to the engine and find how it worked. Although retarded by his father,
who preferred a business to a professional career for his son, Sir Oliver Lodge, through selfeducation and weary hours at night school, became one of the worlds greatest scientists. A
pioneer in wireless communication, Lodge developed and improved various theories which
made wireless telegraphy possible long before the days of Marconi. As a result of his researches
in wireless and electro-magnetic waves he was made a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1900
and was later knighted by King Edward. As time went on, he developed a keen interest in the
higher aspects of religion, studying them with a view to reconciling them to scientific doctrines.
In 1908 he first startled the world with the announcement, before the Physical Research Society,
of his belief in communication with the dead. Following the death of his son Raymond, who
was killed in action during the World War, Sir Oliver made several attempts to communicate
with him. Failing in this, he sought the assistance of a woman medium and soon after
announced the success of his effort in a book called Raymond. We talk too much about death
and the grave, he wrote. I am absolutely convinced that human existence is not limited to the
material body and docs not cease with the death of the brain. It is the Mind, and not the brain,
that designs and plans. I know by direct experience, he continues, that those whom we call
dead are not dead, but have just been separated from their bodily mechanism. I have been in

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touch with the minds of certain people who have parted from their bodies and yet have
preserved their memories, character, and affections.
SIR OLIVER LODGE

Sir Oliver Lodge, scientist and spiritualist, whose work in physics is unsurpassed in modern
times

104

RAMSAY MacDONALD

The line of brilliant statesmanship

The line of brilliant statesmanship begins underneath the first finger, crosses the palm, curving
slightly downwards in the center, ending at the side of the hand. It signifies high idealism,
common-sense reasoning, and the strong conviction that right takes precedence over might.
Rt. Hon. James Ramsay MacDonald, whose career offers perhaps The line of brilliant
statesmanship the nearest British equivalent to Abraham Lincolns rise from log cabin to White
House, was born of poor parents at Lossiemouth, Scotland, on October 12, 1866. No other man
in the history of Great Britains Prime Ministry ever reached that position from such an obscure
beginning as that of Ramsay MacDonald. He grew up in the sturdy, rugged simplicity
characteristic of the coast of Scotland. Interested in politics at an early age and finding that
Lossiemouth offered small opportunities in that line, he went to London at the age of twenty,
where he became a clerk in a business office, devoting his evenings to reading and studying.
In 1888 he was made secretary to a Member of Parliament and soon became known as a freelance journalist, taking at the same time an active part in the Labor movement. In 1895 he was
a Labor candidate for Parliament. Twice defeated, he was finally elected and entered the House
of Commons as a Member for Leicester in 1906. In the following eight years he grew to be one
of the leaders of the Labor party, only to see the work of years crash down upon him because
he opposed Britains entry into the World War. After the war his rise was rapid. Made Prime
Minister in 1924, he is now serving in that office for the third time. As a leader and personality,
James Ramsay MacDonald offers a strange paradox. He is perhaps one of the most-loved and,
at the same time, most-hated men in England. His ideas and convictions offer loyalty to no
party, but to the nation as a whole. At the last election he sacrificed lifelong associations for
one ideal, that of the common welfare of the nation. The attitude of the Labor party, for which
he had worked and struggled, was extremely bitter, but the great British public was not slow to
understand his motives. He occupies now a position of love and trust which the American
political system nukes it difficult for us to understand.

105

RAMSAY MacDONALD

Ramsay MacDonald, British statesman who rose from poor clerk to Prime Minister of Great
Britain, universally beloved and respected even by his political opponents

106

GUGLIELMO MARCONI

The lines of scientific genius

The lines of scientific genius are the three short lines found at the top of the palm between the
third and fourth fingers. They portray a keen, analytical mind and a great ability in scientific
research.
Senator Guglielmo Marconi, famous scientist and inventor of wireless telegraphy, was born at
Bologna, Italy, April 25, 1874, the son of an Italian father and an Irish mother. He received his
elementary school education at Florence, later attending Bologna University where he studied
physics. It was there that he carried out his first experiments in connection with wireless
telegraphy. In 1896 he went to England, and in that year took out the first patent ever granted
for wireless telegraphy based on the use of electric waves. The year following he returned to
Italy and managed to set up communication with battleships twelve miles out to sea. His patents
were accumulating rapidly, and by 1898 he had established wireless communication across the
English Channel. By 1901 he had astonished the world by sending wireless signals across the
Atlantic. Six years later he put into operation the first public wireless service between England
and America. In 1909 he received the Nobel Prize for Physics. He had worked out the principles
governing the so-called Hertzian wave, and his genius had transmuted what had been only a
little understood phenomenon into one of mans most powerful instruments. He brought the
world closer together than even steam has done; he made the great radio industry possible, and
the lives saved at sea because of his invention are innumerable. In 1916 he began his work with
very short waves, looking toward the development of the beam system of wireless
communication. He has carried on this phase of his experimentation ever since, with
increasingly successful results. Among his honors other than the Nobel Prize are the Albert
Medal of the Royal Society of Arts, the Franklin and John Fritz medals, and many others. A
world figure, Marconi lives now at Pontecchio, in his beloved Italy, the country to which he
has devoted so much of his time and energy.

107

GUGLIELMO MARCONI

Guglielmo Marconi, father of modern wireless, responsible for radio broadcasting and all its
tremendous ramifications, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics, great Italian patriot

108

ANDREW W. MELLON

The star of fortune

The star of fortune is found at the base of the third finger and denotes success in business and
finance. In fact, the proverbial luck of those whose hands bear this mark is so remarkable that
almost anything they touch turns to gold.
Andrew William Mellon, Secretary of the Treasury under three Presidents, and one of the most
powerful Cabinet members in the countrys history, was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania,
March 24, 1855, the son of an Irish immigrant who came to the United States from Tyrone
County, Ireland, and settled in Pittsburgh, where he became first a judge and afterward a banker
and business man. Andrew attended the Pittsburgh public schools and what is now the
University of Pittsburgh. His first venture into business was in the lumber and real estate
business, but in 1874 he sold out this venture and with his brother went into their fathers bank,
then known as T. Mellon & Sons, and the forerunner of the wide banking interests controlled
by the Mellons today. Andrew, at the age of twenty-five, became the head of that bank. Soon
after, they began to branch out into other and diverse enterprises: coal, banks, railroads, oil,
and aluminum. So great was his financial success that when he resigned from private business
to become Secretary of the Treasury in 1921, he was holding office as director or officer in one
hundred and sixty corporations. Mellons contributions as Secretary of the Treasury were, in
the beginning, in the reduction of taxes and then in the reduction of the public debt, which, in
ten years, he was able to reduce from twenty-four to sixteen billions, but when the stock market
tumbled in October, 1929, he came in for bitter criticism. Considered one of the richest men in
the world, Mr. Mellon is quiet, and retiring, with an ascetic face and the tapered fingers of the
artist. His love of art expresses itself in the many rare pictures hanging in his apartment in
Washington and in his Pittsburgh home. He docs not care for society, and his life is of the
simplest, his chief interest being his two children and his work. In personal contacts Mr. Mellon,
although always friendly, is unusually reserved. Upon his resignation from the Cabinet, in 1932
he was sent as ambassador to Great Britain, an appointment welcomed abroad, where he is well
and widely known.
109

ANDREW W. MELLON

Andrew W. Mellon, son of an Irish immigrant, former Secretary of the Treasury, once
directing officer in one hundred and sixty corporations

110

BENITO MUSSOLINI

The squares of preservation

The squares of preservation as seen on this palm are found on the principal lines that are broken,
denoting escape from great dangers and injuries.
Benito Mussolini, II Duce, Fascist leader and Premier of Italy, the man who holds sway over
the destinies of forty million people, who dreams of founding an empire on the banks of the
old Mare Nostrum and who has whole legions of well- trained and disciplined black-shirts at
his beck and call, was born in Dovia, Italy, the son of a blacksmith who was an idealist and
suffered many terms of imprisonment for his leadership in Socialism. Young Benito, who was
nurtured in the idealism of his father, was also greatly under the influence of his mother. It was
she, a school teacher herself, who saw that her son received an education for the same calling,
but Mussolini himself has often remarked that if he had been permitted to follow his natural
inclination he would have become a professional violinist. It is a strange twist of destiny that
the man who became the most severe disciplinarian of modern history should have given up
the profession of school-teaching because he could not endure the arbitrary discipline of the
classroom. He is a born intellectualist, but few scholars gained their knowledge from such
unacademic sources. He traveled for some years, teaching or working as a laborer, but always
studying the languages, literature, and politics of the country where he chanced to be. In this
way he acquired the basis for those political ideas which were to astound the world. When he
was eighteen he went to Switzerland, where he worked as a hod carrier in Lausanne. Later he
became a tramp printer in Austria and an unskilled laborer in France. He ran a fly- by-night
newspaper, wrote volumes of poetry, and was thrown into prison eleven times for his radical
activities. With the outbreak of the war, which wrought so many unprecedented changes, he
suddenly changed front and from an extreme radical became a most ardent patriot and
nationalist. He fought in the trenches as a private and bears the scars of forty-two wounds
received in battle After his recovery he began the campaign for nationalism that led him finally
to the Fascist dictatorship which he exercises today.

111

BENITO MUSSOLINI

Benito Mussolini, leader of Italian Fascism, most powerful figure in Italy, statesman and
administrator of astonishing power

112

IGNACE JAN PADEREWSKI

The circle of musical genius

The circle of musical genius is found on top of the palm between the third and fourth fingers,
denoting supreme brilliancy in the field of music.
Ignace Jan Paderewski, world- renowned pianist, composer, and patriot, was born in Kurilowa,
Poland, then a part of Russia, on November 6, i860, of a family of The circle of musical genius
country gentry. In his third year his village was attacked and ravaged by Cossacks putting down
the Polish uprising of 1863, a fateful and tragic occasion for Paderewskis family. Ignace,
growing up on the family estate, read greedily everything that pertained to Polish history and
national conditions. At the age of three he showed an aptitude for music, and a few years later
received his early piano lessons from an old itinerant fiddler. He entered the Warsaw
Conservatory of Music in 1878, where he was advised to learn the flute or trombone or both,
in order that he might secure steady work as an orchestral player, but on the advice of Anton
Rubinstein he decided to go to Vienna to study with a master whose fame was rapidly growing
in EuropeTheodore Leschetizky. At the age of twenty-seven he made his triumphant
professional debut there, repeating his sensationally successful recitals in Paris and London. In
1891 he came to America on his first tour, where in ninety days he gave one hundred and seven
concerts in as many cities. Only gigantic will and endurance could have faced such a test.
Honors and rewards crowded upon him. His tours extended in later years as far across the world
as South America, Australia, and South Africa. He accumulated a fortune but devoted the
greater part of it to help regain freedom for his enslaved nation, and with the outbreak of the
World War he threw himself passionately into the work of winning back independence for
Poland. He raised an army of twenty-five thousand Poles in America, which swelled to eighty
thousand, who fought as an independent Polish army on the side of the Allies. In 1919 he
became the first Premier and Minister of Foreign Affairs of reborn Poland, and Polish delegate
to the Versailles Peace Conference. In 1921 he returned to America and took to planting
vineyards and fruits at his ranch in Paso Robles, California, but in 1927 returned to the concert
stage with his magic unimpaired. Paderewski, the great pianist, is also the glorious patriot, and
113

the same ambition and patriotism that helped him to compose tunes interpreting his native land
aided him in composing plans with which to inspire his countrymen.
IGNACE JAN PADEREWSKI

Ignace Jan Paderewski, world-famous pianist, once Premier of Poland, musician and patriot

114

MUSTAPHA KEMAL PASHA

The star of the conqueror

The star of the conqueror is found in the center of the palm between the lines of head and heart.
It is a rare mark to be seen on any hand. It signifies a personality that, by the sheer power of its
relentless will, conquers everything that stands in its way.
Mustapha Kemal, creator and President of the Turkish Republic, was born in Salonica in 1880.
At an early age, despite his parents objections, he decided upon a military career. After
attending the military academy in Constantinople, where, as a cadet, he indulged in his first
experiment in politics by establishing a student paper and distributing literature prohibited by
school regulations. He was graduated in 1901 as a lieutenant, and in 1904, at twenty-four, was
promoted to the rank of captain and attached to the General Staff. Sometime later, leading the
Young Turk revolt to depose Sultan Abdul Hamid, The Damned, he was imprisoned for a
short time but released upon the successful completion of the revolt. His real opportunity came
during the World War, when he won high recognition through his brilliant defense of Gallipoli.
After the Armistice he bitterly opposed the Treaty of Versailles and immediately declared
Turkish independence of the Allied control in Constantinople. In 1920, disgusted with the
Sultans acceptance of the terms of the Sevres Treaty, he and his followers seized power,
established the capital at Angora, and adopted a vigorous plan of action. He united his
opposition to the Sevres Treaty, which had set up an independent Armenia, gave Thrace to
Greece, and authorized the Greeks to exercise rights over Turkish sovereignty in Asia Minor,
Smyrna, and other provinces. A relentless struggle began, and in a series of brilliantly executed
maneuvers Kemal defeated the Greeks, forcing them out of Asia Minor and Smyrna and
triumphantly entering Constantinople, from which he banished the Sultan, abolishing at the
same time the Caliphate, or religious supremacy of the Sultan, over the entire Moslem world,
and adopted the social code of the West. Kemal is justly hailed as the Father of the Country
by the Turks, and was given the title of Ghazi or Conqueror. In 1923 he was elected
President of the Republic and immediately inaugurated a social revolt unparalleled in the
history of the world, bringing Turkey out of its medieval stupor, abolishing the fez and the
115

harem, scrapping Arabic writing for the Latin alphabet, and converting the republic into a
modem state.
MUSTAPHA KEMAL PASHA

Mustapha Kemal Pasha, modernizer of Turkey, a conqueror only second to Mussolini in the
scope of his achievements

116

GENERAL JOHN J. PERSHING

The star of martial glory

The star of martial glory is to be found at the base of the thumb and signifies great distinction
and celebrity in military life.
General John J. Pershing, upon whose shoulders rested the fate of four million American
soldiers thrown together in the greatest of all wars, was born in Laclede, Missouri, on
September 13, 1860, the son of a village storekeeper who later became town postmaster. At
first he intended to be a lawyer, but when burglars robbed the post office and the family's
savings had to be given over to make up the loss, he secured an appointment to West Point,
thus launching a military career which was to make him one of the greatest American military
heroes. After seeing service in almost every part of the world, at the age of fifty-seven he was
selected by President Wilson to lead the American Expeditionary Forces in France. How well
he mastered that command is a matter of history. The war in Europe had dragged on for nearly
three years and the Germans were pounding the roads leading to Paris. Before Pershing was a
task which would have tried the soul of any man. On June 8, 1917, he and his staff arrived in
England, and on the 13th of the same month he stepped ashore at Boulogne, symbolizing the
millions of Americans who were soon to follow. The war raged on, the Allies fighting for time
and the Germans fighting against it, both realizing that the human tide flowing across the
Atlantic was to be the deciding factor in the struggle, but General Pershings first fight in
France was against the Allies and not against the Germans. The British and French commands
wanted to send the raw, newly arrived American divisions almost straight into their front lines,
but General Pershing held out firmly for a distinct American unit. Never, he said, would he
send American boys into battle without first giving them the benefit of all the training he could.
In spite of the great pressure brought to bear against him from different sources, he held his
ground and won. In 1910 he came home with the last division to leave France, and America
received him like a returning Caesar. His welcome failed to turn his head, nor did it arouse in
him any political ambitions. He was, and still is, the same modest and affectionately known
"Black Jack Pershing that he has always been.

117

GENERAL JOHN J. PERSHING

General John J. Pershing, leader of American forces during the war, soldier of unparalleled
strength and modesty

118

MARY PICKFORD

The. line of public favoritism

The. line of public favoritism is found ascending from the base of the palm at the side of the
hand toward the base of the first finger and denotes a personality which can win popularity and
acclaim. This line is particularly significant in the hands of actors, public speakers, artists, and
similar people.
Mary Pickford, who, with her golden curls and winsome smile, became Americas most
popular and highly paid motion-picture actress, and was christened Americas Sweetheart,
was born in Toronto, Canada. Her name originally was Gladys Mary Smith. She is of IrishEnglish descent and took the name of Mary Pickford when she was thirteen years old. Her stage
debut was made at the age of five, when she played the part of a little boy. When eight, the
golden-haired, pretty child went on the road, appearing in The Little Red Schoolhouse, and
at the age of nine she was already a full-fledged star, playing the part of Jessie, the little mother,
in The Fatal Wedding. Later she played in several heavy melodramas, including a part with
Chauncey Olcott in Edmund Burke. Her first appearance on Broadway was in David Belascos
The Warrens of Virginia, in which she created the role of Betty Warren, and later played the
part of Juliet, the blind girl, in A Good Little Devil, also under the tutelage of Belasco. Like
her famous husband, Douglas Fairbanks, Miss Pickfords first screen appearance was under
the direction of David Wark Griffith, when she starred in a series of one-reel productions,
receiving a salary of forty dollars a week. In 1913 she went to work for the Famous Players
Company, and from then on her rise in the film world was swift and sure. When her contract
expired in 1918, she refused to sign again with this company, although she was receiving ten
thousand dollars a week and fifty percent of the net profits, preferring to establish herself as an
independent producer. Her splendid acting and clean, wholesome film stories did much to lift
motion pictures to a high plane in the amusement world, and for years the picture public would
not let Our Mary grow up. Her golden curls and childish, appealing ways still hold their
appeal, and the star's popularity continues undiminished with a public which is notoriously
tickle and unstable with its idols.
119

MARY PICKFORD

Mary Pickford, one of the first, and still one of the greatest, of motion-picture stars

120

RAYMOND POINCAR

The lines of brilliant diplomacy

The lines of brilliant diplomacy are the three lines extending from the line of head, denoting
the probability' of great success and honor in public life as a result of brilliant administrative
or diplomatic ability.
Raymond Poincare, former President of France, statesman, lawyer, journalist, and political
economist of high order, was born on August 20, 1860, at Bar-le-Duc. He received his early
education from the Jesuit Fathers and later attended the University of Nancy, where his career
was brilliant. After serving the customary short period in the army, and distinguishing himself
as a captain in the Alpine Chasseurs, he settled in Paris, where he became a successful lawyer.
Even his lucrative practice could not keep him out of politics. In his early twenties he was
elected a member of the Chamber of Deputies, representing his native Department of Meuse,
an office which he has held for over forty years, first as a Deputy and later as a Senator. He
held his first public office, that of Under Secretary of State, before he was thirty, and shortly
after, at thirty-three, he became Minister of Public Instruction, the youngest Minister the Third
Republic has ever known. Later, after holding various portfolios under several ministries, he
was called to the premiership in 1912 by President Fallires. As Premier he distinguished
himself by his far-sighted efforts to secure peace in the warring Balkans, to patch up Frances
differences with Germany, and to consolidate Frances alliance with Russia. In 1913 he was
elected President of France. The story of Poincares presidency is literally the story of the war,
the most momentous period in Frances history. Though the President, according to the
constitution, is in reality little better than a constitutional monarch as far as power is concerned,
Poincare used what powers he possessed wisely and well and so helped to create the confidence
that swept France along to victory. He remained in the presidency until 1920, and since then
has held the office of Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, and of Minister of
Finance. He has written a number of books, including a series of memoirs.

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RAYMOND POINCAR

Raymond Poincar, statesman, lawyer, journalist, France's President throughout the Great
War

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POPE PIUS XI

The star of spiritual leadership

The star of spiritual leadership is found on the top of the palm between the first and second
fingers and is very often seen on the hands of high dignitaries of the Church.
Pope Pius XI (Achille Ambrogio Damiano Ratti), head of the Roman Catholic Church and the
two hundred and sixty-first successor to the throne of St. Peter, was born at Desio, a small town
in the province of Lombardy, Italy, on May 31, 1857. His parents, Francesco and Teresa Ratti,
came of peasant stock, his father later becoming a weaver. The Ratti family was neither rich
nor poor, but belonged to a respectable middle class of artisans. Achille Ratti showed an
inclination for the Church at an early age. When he was barely ten, he was admitted as a student
in the Seminary of St. Peter the Martyr, in Milan. Then he went to the seminary at Monza,
where he displayed such talents that he was admitted as a student in the Lombard College in
Rome. He also frequented the Gregorian University, where he took his degrees in cannon law,
theology, and philosophy and was ordained priest on December 20, 1879. From 1882 to 1913
Mgr. Ratti was chaplain of a monastic institution in Milan, later becoming prefect of the
Vatican Library, where he did an immense amount of work in examining codexes and writing
learned treatises. During these years Mgr. Ratti took an annual holiday which he usually spent
in Alpine excursions and made several difficult ascents, including that of Mont Rosa, and the
Alps always remained his great delight. In 1919 he was appointed Apostolic Nuncio in Poland,
and it was this mission that revealed the qualifications of the future pope as a diplomat, a man
of firmness, courage, and evenness of temper. During the Bolshevist invasion of July, 1920,
when Warsaws inhabitants were panic-stricken and government officials were ready for flight,
Mgr. Ratti remained at his post without losing his serenity and inspired others to do likewise,
thereby winning the everlasting affection of the Polish nation. In February, 1921, on the death
of Cardinal Andrea Ferrari, Archbishop of Milan, Mgr. Ratti was called to take his place and
was made cardinal, in June of the same year, by Pope Benedict XV. After the latters death on
January 22, 1922, Cardinal Ratti was chosen by the Conclave as his successor, being elected
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on February 6th. His reign as a sovereign pontiff up to now has been outstanding, among other
things for his truly great encyclicals and for his efforts on be half of the conciliation between
the Vatican and the Italian state, finally realized in the Lateran Treaty on February ti, 1929,
which officially ended the sixty-year-old dissension.
POPE PIUS XI

His Holiness Pope Pius XI, two hundred and sixty-first successor to the throne of St. Peter

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LORD READING

The lines of judicial brilliancy

The lines of judicial brilliancy are the four lines extending from what is known as the line of
head and denote an unusual aptitude for the law and legal processes.
Of recent careers, none approaches in romance, adventure, and swift rise that of the present
Marquess of Reading. The title From Cabin Boy to Viceroy might well serve as a caption for
the review of his life. Born in i860 as Rufus Daniel Isaacs, as he was first known in England,
a Jew, son of a London merchant, he rose from a mediocre beginning to the highest positions
of state, and the brilliance of his career almost overshadows that of Disraeli. At the age of
eighteen he left school and ran away to sea; came back and became a stock broker in London,
proved to be a failure; studied law and at the age of twenty-seven became a barrister. In his
career at the bar, beginning with the least important kind of work, he rose rapidly to success
and fortune, and was made British Attorney General at the age of fifty, Lord Chief Justice of
England at fifty-five, and special ambassador to the United States in 1918, when King George
appointed him to that post on the departure on leave of Sir Cecil Spring-Rice, the then
ambassador. It is now generally known and acceded that the financial policy that saved Great
Britain from economic ruin at the beginning of the World War was Lord Readings. Of all the
acts of courage in the war, that arrangement, by which Great Britain, after the moratorium had
been proclaimed, agreed to insure the payment of bills of exchange, was perhaps the most
remarkable. In 1921 he was appointed Viceroy and Governor General of India. During his
tenure of office there he was described as the most friendly viceroy who ever landed in India.
He arrived at Delhi during a crisis in the history of India nearly as serious as the Mutiny itself.
Everywhere the atmosphere was loaded with tension. Mahatma Gandhi, at the height of his
political influence, was proclaiming a boycott, and serious students of Indian institutions began
to wonder whether Britains day in India was not finished. It was into this uncertain situation
that Lord Reading brought a gracious but dominating personality, and emerged from the ordeal
without committing a single serious mistake. At the present time, although retired from official
duties, his genius still exercises a great influence in world affairs.

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LORD READING

Lord Reading, the poor Jewish boy who rose to be Lord Chief Justice of England and
Viceroy and Governor General of India

126

JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER

The line of longevity

The line of longevity begins under the first finger and runs down the palm, encircling the heel
of the thumb. The extreme length of this line denotes a very long and active life. The shape of
this hand, particularly the squareness of the palm, portrays a man full of untiring energy, a
methodical and enormous worker, stubborn and determined in whatever he goes after, winning
by the sheer force of his indomitable will.
John Davison Rockefeller, the worlds first billionaire, whose wealth and power overshadowed
those of emperors and kings, was born in a little frame dwelling in Richford, New York, on
July 8, 1839, destined to become famous as the founder of one of the largest fortunes and
greatest companies in history. His name was to be known from New York to the tiniest village
in Asia, for in all parts of the world his gifts, which are said to have totaled more than half a
billion dollars, were accepted by grateful peoples and governments. When he was fourteen
years old young Rockefeller moved to Cleveland with his family, where he received his meager
education and where he got his first job as a clerk at a salary of fifty dollars a month. For some
time he was satisfied with his small wages, but as he approached his twenty-first birthday he
asked for eight hundred dollars a year, and upon being refused he resigned and went into
business for himself. That refusal of his employer marked the beginning of the Rockefeller
story, which was to astound financiers throughout the world and to make him one of the most
powerful single figures in history. At that time oil had become an absorbing topic in various
parts of the country. Rockefeller became acquainted with Samuel Andrews, an engineer who
had invented a process for refining oil. Rockefeller took him into partnership, out of which was
to grow, in 1870, the Standard Oil Company. At one time the capitalization of the companies
he controlled was placed at five billion dollars and his personal fortune at one billion. With the
money he had amassed by careful and astute business methodsnever by speculationhe
begin to lay plans for philanthropies on a hitherto unparalleled scale. Shortly after his
retirement from active business in 1911, he founded the General Education Board and the
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Rockefeller Foundation to distribute his donations. Later came the famous Rockefeller Institute
for Medical Research. At present, at the age of ninety-three, he is still hale and hearty. He arises
every morning at six-thirty and plays a good game of golf, dividing his time between Florida
in the winter and his Lakewood and Pocantico Hills estates in the summer.
JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER

John D. Rockefeller, the world's first billionaire, who made the name of the Standard Oil
Company known throughout the entire world

128

WILL ROGERS

The triangle of ready wit

The triangle of ready wit and blunt candor is found underneath the fourth finger, and is often
seen on the hands of public-spirited men, known for their daring utterances of truth and quick
wit.
Will Rogers, cowboy-humorist and brilliant actor, was born at Oologah, Indian Territory, now
the state of Oklahoma, on November 4, 1879, and has in his veins some Cherokee Indian blood.
There is an old tradition that only the kings jester could speak the truth. He accomplished it
by putting hard sayings in the capsules of humor. Will Rogers, a modern kings jester, the
genuine bred-to-the- saddle cowboy, has brought the freshness of the prairie winds to the stage
and screen, and in his daily newspaper articles has delighted his readers with a humor that is
untainted with ribaldry.
Snapping up the days news and making a joke about it before the ink is dry on the papers, he
displays an uncanny ingenuity and quickness of thought that lift him above the ordinary.
In his playful and artless prairie manner he speaks greater truths than more pretentious prophets
dare to utter. His ready wit and shrewd ability to analyze men and events have made him the
friend of presidents and cattlemen alike. His homely philosophy, his straightforward reasoning,
and his knack for pure humorhumor which is a true statement of fact and which he unleashes
in a sort of extemporaneous monologuehave made him one of the most widely listened to
and liked men in the world.
Through the movies, over the radio, from the stage, and in his daily newspaper column, he
reaches nearly everyone who understands the English language, and it is probable that Will
Rogers, in his humorous and painless way, helps to shape public opinion to as great an extent
as any man alive today. He first became known to fame when he appeared, with a lariat and an
inexhaustible supply of topical remarks, on the New York stage. There the fresh and vivid
flavor of his humor attracted wide attention, and his career from that time on has made him an
authentic commentator on all the many currents of American life. He is close to the soil of his
native Oklahoma, but his gifts have made him a citizen of the entire world.
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WILL ROGERS

Will Rogers, cowboy-humorist, actor, political commentator, the modern king's jester

130

FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT

The lines of undaunted courage

The lines of undaunted courage are found extending from what is known as the line of heart,
denoting a nature that by its supreme courage can overcome insurmountable obstacles.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt, governor of the state of New York and one of the most publicspirited statesmen in America, has in the last ten years carried on work in the face of difficulties
sufficient to overwhelm many men. He was born on January 30, 1882, in the Roosevelt
ancestral home at Hyde Park, New York. He was a robust youngster who showed no marked
abilities, and who spent his time alternately in the outdoors and with books. After he was
graduated from Harvard in 1904, with a Bachelor of Arts degree, he enrolled in Columbia
University Law School and was admitted to the bar in 1907, later practising law until 1910,
when he entered politics as a state senator. From that time his climb to political fame has been
rapid. In 1913 he was appointed Assistant Secretary of the Navy by President Wilson with the
immediate task of reorganizing the business of the service, later distinguishing himself by his
invaluable services during the World War. In 1920 he was nominated as Democratic vicepresidential candidate on the ticket led by James M. Cox of Ohio, and although defeated in the
election, his campaign attracted wide attention and commendation. In 1921, at the height of
vigorous manhood, he was suddenly stricken with infantile paralysis. For months, unable to
move (paralysis affected him from the waist down), he went on with supreme courage and later,
when his health was sufficiently restored to permit him to follow normal business activities, he
founded the Georgia Warm Spring Foundation, where he made available to scores of persons,
including many children, the treatments which had benefited him. In 1928 he was elected
governor of New York state to serve it as one of its most able executives, and was reelected in
1930 by the greatest majority ever accorded a candidate in that state. In many ways he is
reminiscent of his illustrious relative, Theodore Roosevelt. An enormous worker, jovial and
good- natured, he numbers among his friends people in all walks of life. His election to the
Presidency of the United States in the fall of 1932 was as much a personal triumph for his
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courage and character as it was a party victory. His success was overwhelming, for he won by
one of the greatest majorities ever recorded in a presidential election.
FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT

Franklin D. Roosevelt, bearer of a famous political name, himself a public servant of

integrity, distinction, and achievement

132

GEORGE BERNARD SHAW

The line of intellect and wit

The line of intellect and wit, rising from the center of the palm upward to the base of the third
finger, signifies a career that should reach great fame and renown purely by the efforts and
qualities of its own mind. The shape of George Bernard Shaws hand, known as the philosophic,
denotes great literary talent, an aptitude for wit and satire, yet a The line of intellect and wit
somewhat lonely and ascetic disposition.
George Bernard Shaw, who in spite of his comic mask has, as a writer and crusader, been as
effective and sincere a teacher as any man alive today, was born on July 26, 1856, in a small
house in the outskirts of Dublin, Ireland. His father, a typical Irish gentleman of small means,
respectable and conventional, was descended from a Hampshire adventurer who settled in
Ireland in the seventeenth century. His mother, twenty years younger than her husband, had all
the audacious qualities that his father lacked. Childhood was the un- happiest part of Shaws
life. At school he stayed close to the bottom of his class. He left at fifteen with a defective
education, was attracted by music and painting, but was placed by his father in the office of a
land agent at a salary of two dollars a week. At the age of twenty he left Dublin and went to
London, where he threw himself headlong into radical movements, joining in the general
onslaught on Victorian morality and becoming a convert to vegetarianism and Karl Marx. In
his first nine years in London he earned precisely six pounds by his writing, of which five was
for writing a patent-medicine advertisement. Three years later, at thirty-two, he met William
Archer, the distinguished critic, who persuaded him to turn from novel-writing to journalism.
Shortly he was writing for a morning paper, an evening paper, and a weekly review, on music
and the theater, at the same time writing plays in his leisure time. Ten years later he published
his first group of plays under the title of Plays Pleasant and Unpleasant. It was about the year
1902 that Shaw at last began to make his mark. In 1903 he produced Man and Superman, which
proved an immense success, bringing him in one year over fifty thousand dollars in royalties.
In the following year Shaw, now forty-eight years old, scored a sensational success with a
satirical play called John Bulls Other Island. He is primarily a sociologist, writing plays instead
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of textbooks and using the theater as his lecture hall, coaxing in the public to hear his message
by wrapping that message in spontaneous wit.
GEORGE BERNARD SHAW

George Bernard Shaw, the Irish playwright whose words have stamped indelibly the thoughts
and ideas of our time

134

ALFRED E. SMITH

The triangle of brilliant administrative ability

The triangle of brilliant administrative ability is found in the center of the palm, underneath the
third finger, and denotes great administrative ability.
Ex-Governor Alfred Emanuel Smith, whose political career has been as dramatic and
fascinating as any that ever began in a log cabin or on a farm, was born December 30, 1873, in
New Yorks celebrated East Side, where his family lived in a comfortable house and in a
respectable neighborhood, mostly of Irish people like his own father and mother. His schooling
was cut short in the eighth grade by his fathers death, when he was forced to go to work to
help support the family. After selling newspapers on the streets for some time, he found a job
in the old Fulton Fish Market. Seeing no future or money in his work, he began to look for
other lines of endeavor, and in 1895 received his first political job as clerk in the office of the
New York Commissioner of Jurors. From that time he made politics his vocation. In 1903 he
was elected to the Assembly, where he stayed for twelve years, serving as Democratic floor
leader in 1911 and 1912. In 1913 he became Speaker of the House, one of the most powerful
positions of the state government. His record in the Assembly was an outstanding one,
particularly in regard to social legislation. In 1915 he was elected sheriff of New York County,
followed by his election in 1917 as president of the Board of Aldermen of New York City.
Elected governor in 1918, he served four terms (1919-20 and 1923-28), creating a precedent,
for in the hundred and fifty-five years that New York has been a state, no man ever held office
as governor so many times. In 1924 he first came into national prominence as candidate for
Democratic presidential nomination, but he was unable to muster enough votes. His friends
thereafter began an active campaign for him which went on until the next convention in 1928,
when he was nominated on the first ballot, but was defeated in the presidential election by one
of the smallest margins on record. In recent years he has been less active in politics, devoting
himself to business and to writing. His political articles have attracted wide attention,
particularly those on subjects of national importance, such as the bonus issue. In 1932 he was

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nude editor of the New Outlook, a magazine which, as the Outlook, was once edited by
Theodore Roosevelt.
ALFRED E. SMITH

Alfred E. Smith, ex-Governor of New York, whose political manifestos are looked on with
equal respect by Republicans and Democrats; possibly the best-known governor New York
has ever had

136

JOSEPH STALIN

The star of powerful leadership

The star of powerful leadership is found a short distance beneath the first finger. It signifies an
iron will that will use every means to reach its goal.
The life story of Joseph Stalin, Soviet Russias ruler, reads like a detective romance. He was
born December 21, 1879, in the Georgian township of Bori, the son of Vissarion Djugasvilli, a
former peasant who was then an operative in a shoe factory. His mother, impressed by the
nearness of the birth of her first child to Christmas, named the boy Joseph and destined him for
the Church. At the age of fourteen, after winning a scholarship, he entered a theological
seminary, which at that time was a hotbed of revolutionary doctrine, both Nationalist and
Marxist. Stalin soon became the leader of the Marxist circle, only to be caught and expelled
from the seminary. From that time on he has crowded into his span of life more fighting action
than any other modern ruler. As a political revolutionist under the Czarist regime, he was
arrested six times, escaped five, and spent seven years in jail or exile. He first became a
professional agitator for the Social Democrats, organizing strikes and political demonstrations.
For these activities he was first arrested in 1902 in Baku, imprisoned for a year, and then exiled
to eastern Siberia, but within a month he had escaped and returned to his work. It was while in
jail in Baku that he came in contact with the Bolshevist party and soon after became a strong
supporter of Lenin and the policy of direct action. After his escape from Siberia he organized
the Bolshevist party branches in the Caucasus, in support of Lenin. From then until 1917 he
was generally in the midst of the most violent revolutionary activities, and his life was a
continuous round of imprisonment, escape, exile, and arrest, but nothing seemed to be able to
break his iron will and undaunted determination. Today Joseph Stalin, the man of steel,
wields greater authority over a greater area than any single man since Tamerlane, and on his
actions and opinions the hope and future of new Russia to a great degree depend.

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JOSEPH STALIN

Joseph Stalin, "the man of steel," wielder of greater power than that of a czar, once a
professional agitator, now dictator of Russia

138

RABINDRANATH TAGORE

The line of intuitive wisdom

The line of intuitive wisdom is found on the side of the hand, beginning under the fourth finger
and running in the form of a semicircle down the palm. It signifies intuitive inspiration
manifesting itself in many ways, in the arts, philosophy, poetry, social justice, and in other
fields.
Sir Rabindranath Tagor, philosopher and poet of the East and West, is versatile in many arts,
but his life has been always dominated by one idealthat all the people of the earth should
live in harmony, each having his place in the sun and each contributing to the welfare of the
whole. Tagore was born in Calcutta on May 6, 1861, of a family of sages loved and revered in
the whole of India. His father, Maharshi, meaning Great Sage, Debendra Nath, is to this day,
though dead many years, still a dominant force in India. After a private education in India,
Rabindranath was sent to England at the age of sixteen to study law. After some time there he
returned to India, where he wrote most of his internationally known works and in 1901 founded
the international institution called Visva-Bharati in Bengal. There he tried to revive the spirit
of education that ancient India had known when eager youths came to sit at the feet of the
mystics, and there also he tried to abolish all class and religious distinction. His writings and
exquisite poetry have by now been translated into almost every civilized language, and in 1913
he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature; the first time that the Nobel Prize Committee
had recognized the art of the Orient. He was knighted by the English government in 1915, and
in the following years traveled extensively, visiting Europe and South America, the United
States and the Far East. In addition to his world-famous verse, he has written and set to music
some three thousand songs. His work has made him, with the possible exception of Gandhi,
the best- known emissary of Eastern thought and culture. Tagore is rather feeble now, but the
world will remember for a long time his teachings and the lovely verse which serves as a link
between die Orient and Occident.

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RABINDRANATH TAGORE

Rabindranath Tagore, poet, Nobel Prize winner, interpreter to the West of the mystical ideas
of the East.

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ARTURO TOSCANINI

The line of artistic temperament

The line of artistic temperament is found extending from what is known as the line of heart,
running toward the side of the hand under the first finger. It denotes a lively temperament
generally coupled with strong artistic tendencies.
Arturo Toscanini, outstanding conductor of the modern musical world, was born in Parma,
Italy, on The line of artistic temperament March 25, 1867. Displaying unusual musical talent
at an early age, he be- became a pupil at the Milan Conservatory, choosing the cello as his
instrument. After completing his studies, he was given a stand in the Scala orchestra. There
occurred one of those fortuitous accidents more commonly associated with business than with
music. The regular conductor falling ill, the young cellist volunteered to conduct the scheduled
performance, which he did from memory, with such excellent results that he was induced to
exchange the bow for the conductors baton. What he has since accomplished in the field of
music is history. A man of great simplicity and warm-hearted in his personal relations,
Toscanini is inflexible in everything pertaining to his art. He is one of the rare men whose
artistic integrity is paramount, to whom money as such is not a consideration, and who has his
own unflattering ideas of audiences or critics who praise his performances when he himself is
not satisfied with them. When these occasions occur he is an avenging fiend to the orchestral
players, who love and fear him equally. His temperament is one of those extremely effective
ones which are immediately translated into action, and his acts are instantaneous releases which
overwhelm players and audiences by their outbursts. His intolerance for anything less than the
highest in art is proverbial. He has moved and thrilled countless audiences with his
performances, for anyone listening to Toscanini cannot fail to be impressed by the
unprecedented beauty and the incomparable art of this great master of the baton. From 1908 to
1921 he was conductor at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York. Since that time he has
appeared there and in other great cities of the world, his mastery unquestioned, his skill only
increased by time.

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ARTURO TOSCANINI

Arturo Toscanini, probably the greatest living conductor, for many years conductor at the
Metropolitan Opera House

142

LEON TROTSKY

The star of eloquence

The star of eloquence is found on the tip of the fourth linger and denotes a power of eloquence
that by the passion of its conviction is able to sway an audience.
Leon Trotsky, one of the founders of the Communist government of Russia and at one time
perhaps the strongest figure in the Soviet regime, was born Leon Davidovitch Bronstein,
November 7, 1879, in the little village of Yanavka, Russia. At the age of seventeen he became
leader of a revolutionary organization, only to be imprisoned shortly afterwards and exiled to
Siberia. In 1902 he escaped, obtaining a false passport to which he signed the name Leon
Trotsky, the name by which he has been known ever since. He lived in exile in Austria,
Switzerland, Paris, London, and America, writing and lecturing on the principles of Karl Marx.
In 1917, with the outbreak of the Russian Revolution, Trotsky was made Minister of War of
the new Soviet Republic. By sheer will power and ability to manage men Trotsky created the
new Russian army which, experts say, is superior to the old Czarist army both in organization
and discipline. With the death of Lenin the power of Trotsky began to weaken, and his
opponents in the Communist party watched their opportunity to oust him from office, a move
in which they soon succeeded. It came after Trotsky had written a number of books on the
Soviet, including On Lenin and 1917, which his enemies claimed were against Bolshevism. In
November, 1924, he was denounced by the Communist party for his literary activities and
accused of heresy. In the ensuing duel between himself and Joseph Stalin for the control of the
machinery of government in the Soviet Union, a duel that began soon after the death of Lenin,
Stalin came out as the victor and has since remained in charge of the destinies of the Russian
state. Trotsky, vanquished, resumed his career of exile and homelessness which has marked his
existence since the age of seventeen, when the Czarist government first banished him to Siberia.
At present, an involuntary exile in Turkey, he spends his time in writing the history of the
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Russian Revolution. His influence has all but vanished, but his name remains with Lenin's as
one of the two most famous which have come out of new Russia.
LEON TROTSKY

Leon Trotsky, first Minister of War of the Soviet Republic, friend and admirer of Lenin, now
exiled by the government which he helped to create

144

GENE TUNNEY

The line of vitality

The line of vitality is found inside the line of life, opposite the thumb, and denotes the
possession of perfect health and great vitality.
From a not particularly robust youth, James Joseph Tunney, better known as "Gene", fought
his way to the world's heavyweight championship, defeating en route to the top some of the
finest fighters boxing has developed. He was born in New York, May 25, 1898, in the heart of
Greenwich Village, the son of a longshoreman. He attended public and parochial schools and
became a shipping clerk, being thus employed when America entered the World War. He
enlisted in the Marines and saw active service in France, where he became interested in boxing.
His participation in many bouts was climaxed by winning the light-heavyweight championship
of the American Expeditionary Forces in Paris. When he returned to America he entered the
professional ranks, and successive victories over such men as Georges Carpentier, Ermino
Spalla, and Tommy Gibbons earned him the right to challenge Dempsey for his title. In the
bout staged on September 23, 1926, in the Centennial Stadium of Philadelphia, he created a
sensation by defeating Jack Dempsey, who was rated by many critics as the greatest fighter of
all time. Tunney had few, if any, illusions about the prize ring. He had no love for the sport and
its associations, but he realized that no other profession offered him such wealth in so short a
time. He took a rather ordinary physique and developed it into one of the finest pieces of ring
machinery of all time. His career is one of the few proofs that boxing champions are not
necessarily born but can be developed through power of will and self-discipline. Tunney was
never popular with the masses, who liked the heavyweight champion to be a hail-fellow- wellmet. They knew of Tunneys cordial dislike for professional boxing, and this fact, coupled with
a natural reticence and refinement, made him a far less popular figure than Dempsey. Once he
announced his retirement, Tunney turned immediately to those things for which he had
professed a lifetime liking. Books, art, and music became his hobbies, and his intimates are
men of learning and achievement. During his ring career he had engaged in sixty-eight fights,

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lost one, and scored thirty-five knockouts. For his second tight with Dempsey he received one
million dollars, the largest purse ever paid to a prize fighter.
GENE TUNNEY

Gene Tunney, first a prizefighter, now author, man of letters, and much-respected politician

146

PAUL VON HINDENBURG

The line of longevity

The line of longevity begins under the first finger and runs down the palm, encircling the heel
of the thumb. The extreme length of this line signifies a long and active life.
Paul von Beneckendorf und Hindenburg, Field Marshal of the German Imperial Army, and
second President of the German Republic, was born October 2, 1847, in Posen, now a part of
Poland. The Hindenburg family had for centuries served the Hohenzollern dynasty as soldiers
and statesmen, and ruled with an iron rod over many serfs and much land. In the AustroPrussian War in 1866, as a second lieutenant, he first smelled powder. He was as courageous
and brave as tradition required and had many narrow escapes. In his study still hangs a helmet,
revealing a hole torn by an Austrian bullet which grazed the lieutenants skull. When, under
Bismarcks skillful hand, the German Empire was born in the Versailles Palace following the
Franco-Prussian War, Paul von Hindenburg witnessed that historic act and went home an
ardent believer in all things military. Then came the drab, dull routine of garrison life, with an
assignment to the military academy for a few years, and the slow climb toward the apex of the
military hierarchy. Very little is recorded of this period of his life. He was, by all accounts, a
conscientious, hard-working soldier, with little interest and understanding for anything but his
trade, and no dominant passion other than two guiding factors in his life: discipline and duty.
In 1909 he left military service and retired into private life with a liberal pension, utterly
unknown to the public. Fie bought a small villa in Hanover, tended his garden, and looked
towards his declining years with the stolidity of an old warrior. In 1914, called back from
retirement, he took command of Germanys eastern forces, smashed the invading Russian army,
and became, overnight, Germanys most popular idol. Again, in the year 1925, the President
of the young republic, Friedrich Ebert, died and Germany was left on the edge of chaos.
Hindenburg was persuaded to run for the office by the monarchists, who thought that his
election would mean the return of the Kaiser. Elected amid the cheers of the jubilant Royalists,
Von Hindenburg took the oath, swearing to uphold the German constitution. In a short time the
monarchists, to their dismay and disappointment, discovered that when he swore to uphold the
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constitution he meant exactly what he said; and so President von Hindenburg, a convinced
monarchist, who had discipline and duty as his twin guiding stars, saved the German Republic.
PAUL VON HINDENBURG

Paul Von Hindenburg, a monarchist turned republican, the greatest bulwark of all republican
Germany against its enemies internal and external

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THE PRINCE OF WALES

The triangle of superior sportsmanship

The triangle of superior sportsmanship, as seen on this palm, is found on the base of the first
finger, signifying a born sportsman.
Edward Albert Christian George Andrew Patrick David, Prince of Wales, heir to the throne of
England and one of the most popular Englishmen alive, was born on June 23, 1894. Although
hedged around by court etiquette, he had always the reputation of being a really human boy.
He followed the usual course of training for an English prince, first graduating as a naval cadet
and reaching the rank of qualified lieutenant, then being transferred to the army. With the
outbreak of the World War, at his own urgent insistence he was sent to the battlefront, where
he had many narrow escapes, earning the Military Cross as a result of many daring escapades,
and winning the respect and admiration of the troops. After the Armistice the Prince again took
up his strenuous social and ceremonial duties as heir to the British throne. He made two
complete tours around the world and numerous other voyages in which he covered the greater
part of the far-flung British Empire, displaying a deep interest in every sphere of national life
domestic, industrial, commercial, and social. He also endeared himself to the British public by
the way he forced himself to the front in the world of sport. Hunting, tennis, golf, and his habit
of riding his own horses in competition with crack jockeys over stiff steeplechase courses
thrilled even the non-sporting public, for the danger in steeplechasing is great even to brilliant
horsemen. For a number of years half of the discussions concerning the Prince of Wales have
been centered upon the absorbing question of whom he would marry. The Prince so far has
refused to commit himself. He has found pleasure in the company of many women, is
exceedingly gracious with them, and his picture probably draws more soulful glances from
debutantes of two continents than that of any other man. As a matter of fact the war, with its
revolutionary change- in the status of royalty, probably saved him from an old-fashioned
marriage, arranged in the foreign offices of some European nation and devoid of romance. If
anything of the kind ever were suggested to him, he has undoubtedly rejected it, for none of

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the royal princesses has so far drawn his attention. The general opinion is that if he ever marries,
he will make some English girl his Queen.
THE PRINCE OF WALES

The Prince of Wales, heir to the throne of England, confirmed bachelor, probably the most
famous young man alive

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H. G. WELLS

The triangle of prophetic intellect

The triangle of prophetic intellect is located at the bottom of the palm underneath the fourth
finger and denotes a faculty for flights of fancy which may carry in them grains of real prophetic
truth.
Herbert George Wells, one of Englands greatest writers, was born in Bromley, Kent, on
September 21, 1866, the son of a professional cricket player, who also owned a small china
shop. As a boy Wells had every opportunity in education, first attending a private school and
later, being determined to become a scientist, the Royal College of Science, where he received
first graduation honors in Zoology. After working for some time for various newspapers, he
wrote his first book, The Time Machine, which was published in 1895, and from then on his
books have followed at the rate of two or more a year for more than thirty-five years. Although
he has written and published more than sixty books, forty of which are fiction, he is better
known throughout the world for his Outline of History, which many responsible critics claim
has had wider and more immediate educational influence on the public than any other work of
the twentieth century in any language. Ideas that form the basis of his weird tales he claims are
often obtained from scientific papers which he reads avidly, and even his most severe critics
concede that he shares honors with Jules Verne in having that curious gift of making the wildest
flights of imagination seem scientifically natural. Wells has always maintained a keen interest
in public affairs, having decided Socialistic tendencies, but has never actively participated in
them. His income from his writings is estimated at one hundred thousand dollars annually, and
his Outline of History alone brought him an immediate return of over three hundred thousand
dollars. A great critic once wrote of Wells: His supreme preoccupation has been and still is
the imperfection of the world and of men and their betterment. His subject always is new worlds,
not individuals, not even nations. His aim is to quicken civilization. Since the Outline of
History he has produced a massive outline of modern economics, The Work, Wealth and
Happiness of Mankind, and another outline, written with Julian Huxley and G. P. Wells, The
Science of Life.
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H. G. WELLS

H. G. Wells, whose Outline of History marked the beginning of a new era in historical
writing, whose political and social ideas have had an international influence

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WOODROW WILSON

The star of brilliant intellect

The star of brilliant intellect is found at the termination of what is known as the line of head,
denoting supreme brilliancy of the mind.
Thomas Woodrow Wilson, one of Americas greatest presidents, whose career reads like a
tragic and moving story, was born of Scotch Presbyterian stock, in Staunton, Virginia,
December 28, 1856. His father was a Presbyterian minister, his mother, Janet Woodrow Wilson,
the descendant of a family of Scotch Presbyterian ministers noted for their aggressiveness.
When he was two years old the family moved to Augusta, Georgia, where Wilson spent much
of his childhood. At seventeen he began his scholastic career at Davidson College, and in 1875
entered Princeton University. Here he seems to have molded those peculiar traits of personality
which afterwards set him apart as an individual, as president of Princeton University, governor
of New Jersey, and finally President of the United States. His early urge for self-expression
first took a literary bent. Perhaps the best known of his books are the History of the American
People and The New Freedom. Completing his law studies, he put out his shingle in Atlanta,
Georgia, but a scarcity of clients forced him to abandon the bar, and he took up a course of
special studies at Johns Hopkins University and decided on teaching as a career. In the
following years, as professor of history and political economics, he lectured at Bryn Mawr,
Wesleyan, and Princeton universities, and later was elected president of Princeton University.
In 1911 he was elected governor of New Jersey. One year later, July 2, 1912, he was nominated
for President by the Democratic National Convention in Baltimore, and later was elected by an
overwhelming majority. He reached the worlds summit of glory and acclaim during the Paris
Peace Conference, and his ebb, as, broken in body and fame, but not in spirit, he rode down
Pennsylvania Avenue through the sunshine of March 4, 1921, away from the White House
forever. His was a lonely, self-controlled personality. He stood out not only as a brilliant
statesman and speaker, a deep thinker and an educator, but also as an idealist who mourned
that he could not awaken the world to his own conceptions of right and polity.

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WOODROW WILSON

Woodrow Wilson, American war President, whose life ended in tragedy when his ideals of
international politics were swept away at the end of the war

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