The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1870-07-30
EVK VVNWINIl51.- =
JOHN 8. wITCHER.
The Perils' Of Eplstolar;lYI Literature.

The PerilS of Epistolary Literature.
It Is recorded among the sayings OF
some wise man that the pen is mighticr
than the sword, It Is also more danger
Gus than the sword-nct perhaps to nun
against whom It is wieAled, but to him
Who wieldsit. 1t Is one Of the things not
to be yrashly touched. Many q poor
wight has been selCimpaled on it, only TO.
yriggle there III hopeless ridicnlostty the
balance Of his days. More trouble has
risen TO plague mankind from singing
Ink than splitting blood and, indeed, most
Of tho blood split in modern wars has
been due to some unIucky blunder on pa
per. See how all Europe has been agitated
fora week by little memorandum jotted
down.tyo. yesrs.a ago In Berlin BY. q fellow
named BENEpETTL. In a. rnr.5
OF all tie uses made Of the pen the
epistolary Is the most perilous. Who
eSerdRr6te alctteri that did not some day
rise db in Judgment againsthim =" How
many men have been ruined by single
epistle II HENRY CLAY had not written
certain letter about his views on the
tariff, he would have been elected Presi-
depKso4S 26iyears ago. If he h"d been
elected there wouldn't have been any an
nexAtion of,T6xns or any war with Next
90; and perhaps tho whole current OF
events for these 20 years would have been
changed. How many politician has
toupdlaimseltruined by,some unfortunate
lettes, Ito II BE fesurrected Just when he
least expects OF desires It. 1t was q
maxim with President Van BUREN, we
believe, that a man in political lite had
better walk 90 miles any time to talk
with a man than to write him letter.
How many politicians can testify to its
wisdom.
Il It penmanship Is a dangerous diversion
when man writes over his own name, II
lsdopblyfgo, when he signs the name Of
somebody else. Many fellow who de-
served to be successful has destroyed him
self by writing other peoples names.
There Was young KETcHuM, for exam
Pile, rich and popular, who tried it in
city where justice is VIGOROUSLY blind;
and he had to look through tho grated
windows OF Sing Sing ever SO many wea-
~. months. Iepwas a fatal skill that
KEToHuM had with that most treach-
erouS weap91i How many like himhave
good reasons to wish no such instrument
ofself destruction had ever been invented.
Bid III Is ( poor sort Of talent that
contents itself with mere meChant-
Gal accomplishments in-penmanship-
with tic mere ability to write an
other mans name quite as good as he
writes it himself Real genius disports It.
selG,I4 another way. To be able to put
yourself In his place,"-to know that an.
other man ought % write a lctterITto
know Just when he ought to write ito
know just what he ought to say,--and
then towrite It for him without hisknow-
Ing Il and bring st forth at the proper
time and place SO that the letter when
written and read shall be bosom Of Do
structlon among ones own enemies, toslay
them as the jawbone did the Philistines,
and clear llepath to Office and rcnown-
this il the work Of genius in its highest
6h&aGdl one who can. WELD the pen
with such brilliant effects rs these, has
only to go forward in the same path con.
quering and to conquer. fl.