EVER HEAR OF THE ORDER OF THE KNIGHTS

AND LADIES OF EHUD?

[Harbor Grace Standard — July 13, 1912]

—————

You may Become a Member of he Order if you are Left-Handed —

Strange Facts About a Little-Understood Occurrence

—————

Are you an Ehudite?  If so, you are a member of one of the most exclusive organizations in the world.

There are organizations in which membership depends upon wealth, social position or distinguished merit. But membership in the fraternity of the Knights and Ladies of Ehud is far more exclusive. It depends wholly upon birth. Only left-handed people can ever hope to become members.

The Rev. William Albert Frye is the founder of the Order of the Knights and Ladies of Ehud. He is a left-handed pastor, and so convinced is he that left-handed people are not getting fair play in this world that he is making a special ministry to them. The following is one of his latest addresses:

A man is no more responsible for being left-handed than he is for being red-headed. Both are respectable. The left-handed person has ever been a factor in the world, and is more or less conspicuous. He is something of a genius—never an eccentric or a fool. He is naturally shrewd and observing. The fact that he is under the handicap of custom and definition makes him alert, and, perhaps, suspicious, but never captious—never soft. The dictionary unjustly describes him by defining left as "weak, worthless, clumsy, and unskillful."

[In the play CAPTAIN by Beaumont and Fletcher,] Histo asked what kind of a man Piso was exploiting, and the answer was: "That thou mayest know him perfectly, he is one of a left-handed making, a lank, lean thing." Yet it can be clearly shown that some of the finest work of the brush and pen have issued from the left hand. The left-handed person is a constant argument for achievement and lawful departure from ruts and commonplace things. They have no precedent, and have to blaze their own way. That is why left-handed persons are always original.

A Study.

For many years I have made a study of left-handed people. I have become convinced that thousands of them have been and are being unjustly treated. I founded the Knights and Ladies of Ehud to win just recognition.for my left-handed brethren. Our motto is "No more punishment for the left-handed."

Nurses, parents and teachers punish children who are left-handed in an effort to make them use their right hands. I myself can remember being punished for using my left hand, which in me happened to be the most willing. No one not left-handed can know the sufferings of a left-handed person - the inconvenience, the humiliation constantly occurring through life.

Why are the majority of people right-handed? Some suppose it is because of long ages of heredity; that centuries upon centuries of partial employment, or none at all, have caused the left hand to lose its natural cunning. Among biologist it is notorious that many animals, birds and insects had had organs, both external and internal, fall into desuetude through disuse attendant upon changed conditions of environment and ways of living.

The Reason Why.

Against this theory, however, it is pointed out that babies are left-handed when very young, and that for the simplest of reasons. Thus ordinarily a mother or nurse, unless herself be left-handed, carries an infant with its head resting against her breast, and with its right arm next to her body. Consequently baby dart out with his left hand to grasp objects that attract his notice. Inded, the little one might well grow up left-handed in the most natural way unless checked in the habit by parents or relatives. Have not all herd fond mother or father remonstrating, "Right hand, darling!" with the child that put o his or her left hand in greeting a visitor.

Why are the majority of people right-handed? To answer this question it is necessary to go back to the time when man was a cave dweller and had to fight wild mammoth and mastodon for bare subsistence. Stone axe or super in hand, he used his right hand in order to keep his hert, the mot vital of organs, as far as possible from an adversary's assault. And later, when tribe found tribe as common foes, it was found convenient to wield weapons in uniformity, leaving the other hand and arm free for preserving balance and for holding a shield. The aim was always to protect the heart, and this was done with the left hand. In this way right-handedness was brought about and passed down from rather to son for untold generations. Man has ever been a fighting animal, and it must have been clear to him from the earlier times that of some of the fighting phalanx were left-handed and others right-handed their weapons would be continually clashing and their squares thrown into disorder with disastrous effect when the enemy should perceive a momentary confusion.

Use Both Hands.

On the other hand, if each man used spear or axe with the same hand as his neighbor, symmetry and system would be given to the fighting force. To maintain that the left hand suffers from any physical disability as compared with its more favored fellow is unfair, and not in accord with fact. This may be shown by any one who takes pains to train his left hand; he will soon find that one may become as clever as the other. Thus in knitting, a woman gives both an equal share of work, and she is equally skilled with each hand. And have you not noticed that when riding a man gives his left hand the preference in the matter of holding the reins?

There is much curious and interesting evidence to show that in the early days of the world's history left-handed men abounded, and were warriors of renown at that. I have found that many of the old Biblical characters were left-handed, and among them was a great general of King David's forces named Ehud. It is after him than my left-handed brotherhood is named. Ehud was a Benjaminite, and one of the Judges of Israel, or that part of Israel that was under the dominion of the Moabites.

In recent years we have discovered that people are right-handed because the left side of the head and the left side of the grain are more developed than the right side. There is a distinct advantage in having the right side, the right love of the brain, more developed. And of that side is more developed you are left-handed. Left-handed people are right-brained people, and out of the ordinary. Therefore, every such person on earth is entitled to knighthood in the noble order of the Knights and Ladies of Ehud.

Not a Matter of Pity.

There is no reason for the left-handed to be looked upon with a kind of pity while the ambidextrous - those who use both hands indifferently - are regarded as clever freaks. The left-handed man is entitled to as much respect as the right-handed man.

Among famous left-handed men and women quoted by Mr. Frye are Ehud, one of David's generals, Julius Caesar, Hans Holbein, painter, Cornelius Ketel, Dutch painter, Rugendas, German battle painter, and Queen Victoria.