Daily national Democrat., 1858-08-24
On Manual Whiting.
From the Hesperian.l

people may affect to despise it is begin
ming to be acknowledged very useful
acquisition. A philosopher has said,
whatever is worth doing at all, is worth
doing welP; but with respect to hand
writing, this maxim would appear to
be inapplicable. Without proceeding
to the length of some pretenders of the
present day, ofjudging the characters
of persons by their handwriting, it is
nevertheless true that some idea may
be formed Of a person from the hand
writing. Every one must have re-
marked how very different the style of
mems handwriting is from that of wo-
men. How much more precise, how
much neater the character of the latter
appears. With like discernment, even
an ordinary observer may generally de-
tect the fidgedty and nervous man from
the bold and decisive man; the mac
versed in classic lore, from the man Ell
gagged in active commerce; the mere
book-worm of the closet, from the ever
transtory traveller.
Some years ago, every respectable
person affected slovenly style OF
handwriting especially in England.
This was occasioned by the example set
by the upper classes, court, and great
writer's Of the day; whose avocations,
perhaps, especially Of the latter, might
afford sufficient excuse for the bad
practice. call it bad practice, as
tending to throw difficulties in the way
Of active business, and impeding, often
seriously, general convenience.
The Post Office of the United States
is obliged to have what are called deci-
phering clerks, at a great expense to the
establishment; whose business it is to
decipher the miserable scrawls that
sometimes appear before them. In
England the staff of this department is
also attended with much greater ex-
pense. However, there are few evils
in the world that do not elicit, SOM
time or other, some amount of good. l.
Two of these men in the English de-
partment, we are told, f'om Their h,.b t
Of this kind of investigation, are now
engaged upon the hieroglyphic charac-
ter, and are found to be of immense ser
vice from the retentiveness of memory
which they have acquired, Of distinguish
ing varieties of marks.
Perhaps of all national handwriting,
the neatest character is the German.-
Almost all Germans write well. The
French, also are worthy of note, and
perhaps stand next to them in respect
of clearness of letter.
England, within the last quarter of a
century, has made the most rapid
strides; and from the example set by
her Queen, who writes a clear and ele-
giant hand, it has become the fashion no
longer to neglect this branch of educa-
ton. The schools, from the lowest to
the highest character, now pay great at
tention to this art, and the result pro-
duced is, that, as a nation, they now
stand unrivaled in this useful art, where,
few years before, from the pernicious
example set by lazy court and an idle
and voluptuous King, the very reverse
was the case. believe that it is uni
versally acknowledged that the copper
plate-writing engravers in England are
the best in the world. The principal
Of this establishment end avors to meet
the wishes of parents in this respect,
and the examples on the board before
us are some Of the patterns given to us
to copy every day.
Writing being technical art, it is in
the power of every one to acquire a
good handwriting. 1t is of infinite ser.
vice in strengthening the nerves of the
hand; proofs of this are being made
manifest every day. A boy, at first
not capable Of making a straight stroke
an inch long, without tremulous afiec-
ton, after a few months perseverance
has been found able to convey glass
of water, full to overAowing, from ia
BILE, without spilling drop.
OF American handwritings, perhaps
the best that ever appeared is from thD
active pen Of the benevolent Franklin.
No nah ever despised af'ectation more
thln he, and ne had that good sense all
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