Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1881-05-17
For the SPECTATOR.
Handwriting.

Mr.. EDITOR Why do lawyers, as a
class, write more unintellibly than any
one else? Some weeks since I received
a letter from a,venerabie friend in Lex
ingtOn, belonging to the fraternity, and
remembering, at the time of writing to
him, his iptirmity, cautioned him
against the cruelty ne was in TIE habit
of inflicting on his spOndents wnen
he was much younger, and now that
time had made his hand tremulOus, I
hoped that he would write so l could
decipher it. A useless preeaution.
could not make out, on an average, one
word in a line. Spending the night
with limb of the law in your town
soon after, bethOught me of the letter,
as the writer was mutual friend, when
| he said he could read it will out any
difficulty. Taking the lamr in one
| hand aud the letter in the other, his
| specs astrlde his nose, ne went 20 work.
[ secretly wished photographer could
| have been near and canv&ssed him in
the task. ChampolIon reading the
| hieroglyphics on the Pyramids. in COM
parison, was labor of love. PuZzling
over it for some time, he handed it back
in pet, with the remark, There Is
nothing in it anyhow" Break fasting
with a lady friend of your town soon
after native of Lexington, when speak,
ing of visit she had made there, I
asked if she had met the venerable law
yer re"erred to, and told her the above
incident, She laughed heartily, and
asked if I had ever seen Mr.. Michie's
handwriting. | said frequently, and
that whilst | had usually deciphered 1t
right well, that thought comparison
[ once heard, as illustrating it, was a
very opposite one, that it more resem-
bled g chicken walking over paper, with
| ink on its claws, than any thing with
which it could be compared. Laugh
ing, she said he had drawn up deed at
one time for her mother, that the old
lady, having puzzled over as my lawyer~
friend referred to, would get nervous
| when any reference would be made TO
it. She went on to say, Mr.. Niche had
written to one of his daughters one
summer at one of the watering places.
She puzzled over it at intervals, by way
of amusement, between the ballroom,
rambles over the hills, &c. Returning
to her home after some weeks, she be-
thought her of the letter, and handing
i5 to her father, said she was in receipt
of letter from q friend she could not
read, and wished he would read it for
her. Deliberately adjusting his specs,
with lips pOuche0 out. (l can see him
lnost vIvidly, as he poured over it, he
tried it for long time, evidently hav-
ing forgotten all the circumstances he
had described, when, entirely batfled,
ne handed it back, with the interroga-
tory, "What fool wrote that ?'
NIHILIST.
WoMEN'S CONvERsATION.-Wh
good thing it would k~o--omen would
only speak their minds. TherS Is 9TH
ing that honest men desire more than
to understand that mysterious race that
is so like them and yet so unlike, who
shares their homes but not their
thoughts, who are so shrewd, so prao-
teal and so irrational. The poor men
yearn to break down the invisible bar
rier and see into the real life of those
they love so well; but the loved ones
smile and chatter and say pretty things,
and ingenious things, and things they
have borrowed from men and improved
in the borrowing, but never one word Of
the real thoughts that are working in
their busy brains. So the men flatter
and lie because they think the women
like it, and the women accept it all be-
cause they think it is mans nature; and
the men think women are empty head
ed angels and the women think men
are fine intelligent brutes and the two
classes go on loving and despising one
another accordingly, and all for the
want of little truthfulpess in conversa-
ton.