The Manitowoc tribune. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1866-1878, 1877-04-12
4 SLIGHT IMPROVEMENT,

MIR. George Simpleson, junior, might
son of fortune.
The only son of rich merchant, he
had been educated at Harrow and Ok
ford.
Shortly after leaving college, he had
fallen in love with a beautiful girl, the
daughter of a business acquaintance of
Mr. Simpson, senior So that the TWO
fathers had put their heads, or rather their
purses together, and had started the
young couple in life.
Which same start took the shape of a
handsomely furnished villa at Putney,
and a liberal account at the bankers
And yet Mr.. George Simpleson was
not contented. In the midst of all his
| comfort, with a lovely and accomplished
wife, this Sybarite was not without the
crumpled rose-leaf to disturb his rest.
And what dc you think, reader, was the
thorn in the side that made Mr.. Simple
son imagine he was miserable man?
Nothing more or less than his hand
writing.
At Harrow he had been taught Latin
and Greek, but writing was not deemed
a necessary accomplishment for gen.
tleman or perhaps they considered that
it ought to come intuitively.
At all events, he had not been taught
the mysteries of the thin up stroke and
the thick down the graceful curve and
the various other minutise of the art OF
caligraphy.
| AT Oxford he had not found it neces-
sary to perfect himself in penmanship,
consequently he still retained peculiar
collection of strangely formed hero
glyphics which he honored by terming
his writing
Mr.. George Simpleson, senior, was
continually complaining about his sons
wretched scrawl."
His father-in-law, Mr.. Manvers, never
let pass an opportunity of expatiating
upon the benefits of plain, commercial
hand.
1t was in vain George tried to persuade
them that bad handwriting formed one
of the outward and visible signs of a
gentleman.
Even his wife added her mite to his
misery. She wrote beautiful hand,
and, perhaps in hopes OF achieving re-
formation, she often compared the two
together.
At length these constant comparisons
made George so intensely wretched that
he hated the sight of pen and ink and
paper, and one evening after particr1-
larry vexatious lecture from Mr.. Manvers
on the wickedness of wasting a business
mans time (Which was his money! by
writing what nobody could read, he
went to bed fully determined to do some
thing.
On the morning after arriving at this
determination, and while he was still
warm on the subject, he happened to be
reading the paper at breakfast, whe1
his eye fell or the following advertise
ment:
HANDwRITING.-Gentl of any age taugh
easy lessons. Bookkeeping by double ant
single entry.
Then followed the name and address
of the teacher. George could scarcely
refrain from giving vent to an exclama
ton of Joy.
He took down the address, deter
mined to have dozen lessons at once
He would not tell his wife, though. III,
would wait until he had acquired {
flowing and graceful handwriting" al
per advertisement, and then he woul(
surprise her, and enjoy her amazement
Accordingly, after breakfast he dressed
himself and proceeded to town.
At length he completed the Pre-
scribed course, and the triumphan
professor, making him sign his name on
scrap of paper, compared it with a sigma
ture he had written before commencing
his lessons.
And certainly the difference was won
derful; nobody would have believe,
them to have emanated from the SAM
fingers.