The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1882-02-10
READING BAD PENMANSHIP.
stupid Readers, Not had Peumep, Mainly
mt tault-ro AnalyEe the Great Trims
ILondon Spectator

stupid Readers, Not had PeurueD, Mainly
mt sauit-ro AnaiyEs the Great Trims
Needed.
lLondon SPECTATOR
Anecdotes Of ludicrous, or worse than
ludicrous, mistakes occasioned by bad
handwriting are numerous enough.
Some of them are as obviously invented
as Moore's " freshly blown noses" for
"freshly blown roses" and others tell
strongly of the stupidity of the readers.
A small case of the stupid sort comes to
us from Jersey. 1t is said that the
Lieutenant Governor, General Nickol-
son, i'll apoloeizing for his absence from
a temperance meeting, referred to /" the
needs of further restrictions on the sale of
drink" but that the last few words were
read Gin the Isle of Drink" and that
this led to Indignant protests ON the
part of certain citizens" This is quoted
as a warming to those who will not
take the trouble to write legibly," but it
is equally a warning to readers of hand
writing to use what brains they may
happen to possess. All who have had
much experience IN the performances OF
printers and copyists know very well
that, though misreadings are fewest when
the original manuscript is good, some OF
tracted from the fairest "copy those,
namely, which make wretched, bastard
sense, that perverts the meaning or en-
! feebles the style. The reason is OBJ
1 vious n less strenuous attention is paid
to good handwriting than to bad Even
in " setting up" from plain print,
| strange mistakes are made for instance,
IN setting up the last line of GUM
] r Il I A
King" the printers of the review, having
the book before them, printed, To
where beyond these ViceS there is
| peace" for "voices.
Handwriting bears much blame that
does not belong to it. OF course,
mans writing ought to be legible, but
allowance must be made for idiosyncrasy,
fatigue, or illness. A handwriting with
out peculiarities is a handwriting with
out landmarks or checks upon false read
ing and, as absolutely good writing is
not to be looked for in the business of
life, the dull school-boy hand, with no
, special character i'll 1t, Is not without its
dangers. The very worst manuscript
may be made out by a reader who can
and will analyze, but those who can and
will analyze are few. Here, as else
! where, there are not many who find
pleasure in taking trouble and applying
obvious general rules. Take the subject
Of spelling, for instance The rule
which decides In certain words whether,
when the sound is &c, the word shall be
spelled eli or ie is SO short and easy that
any one who had no previous knowledge
of human dullness would think it utterly
impossible that a mistake should ever
be made by writer who had once cast
/ his eye upon the rule; but what the fact
is we have some of us melancholy rea-
Sons for knowing. Now, take the case
of a badly written manuscript. You will
find n whole group of people fumbling
at a sentence, and making, as to one
particular obscure word, guesses upon
guesses, all Of which are simply absurd.
/ When it is demonstrably clear that the
missing link must be an adverb, you
may hear six sane men trying nouns or
verbs. 1t may be clear that the dark
word must be one of strong praise of a
given kind, the dictionary possibilities
of the case lying within narrow compass,
but scores of false shots will be made
because nobody has the brains or the
will TO say to himself, Whatever this
word may be, we can positively deter
mine what 1t is not, and so limit our
range of guessing" In making out bad
manuscript it is more than half the bat
tie to be able to determine at glance
what q word neither is nor can by any
possibility be.
There are here and there human be-
ings who are by nature incapable of
writing good hand, just as there are
others who can not draw q straight line
or true circle, or even recognize one.
But the ugly manuscript of the clumsy
listed struggler after form is usually
very clear. Haste, uneasiness, excess
sive work, nervous preoccupation-these
are the chief causes of obscure hand
writing with most of us. But when a
man manuscript has once made for it.
self fixed character of its own neither
printers nor expert copylsts would like
1t to come round to tame simplicity aud
correctness. 1t would be, in another
way, the case of the lover with squint
who ruined his suit by going to the ocu-
list and getting bis eyes put straight
the lady could no longer meet his eye in
the old atfectionate way, and she dis.
missed him. Still, there are faults of
handwriting which are inexcusable in
themselves, and which neither compost
tor nor copyist can possibly like to see.
One OF the worst OF these is lax practice
In putting the strokes to such letters as
M and n. There is no harm in cutting
down certain syllables, such as ment and
ing to mere lines or twirls, but where an
attempt Is made to express the charac-
ters the number Of strokes ought to be
uniform. Another practical observation
is that Hurried handwriting gains no
time for the writer. A downright lazy
scrawl is another matter aud SO is that
kind of bad writing in which we can see
in the badness egotistic self-assertion
or disregard of the eyes and wits of
others.
TT 10 ralated TINT q Eriend from Nan