The semi-weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1882-1886, 1882-02-22

ward knew - waAtbe English lady,
3ee and redeem him. 81 >
She filled utterly, and both she ant
the fair young girl IRE seen no more IL
the brilliant society ii which the youn1
beauty was once sb admired. -
H.. had Penmanship. . r.
Anecdotes Of ludicross, or worse than
ludicr0us mistakes OccasiOned by had
handwriting are numerous enough.
some Of them are a obviously invented
~ MoOre's ''freshly-blOwn noses tOr
''freshly-blown roses" and others tell
strongly Of the stupidity Of the readers.
One Ut the best, true Or false, IL that ri
Horace Greeley or some other editor.
Greeley, us the tale goes, wrote, in his
usual scrawl, u letter to this gentleman.
The latter wrOte an answer, but in his
haste put into tie envelope tor Greeley.
Grecley's own letter JUS received.
Greeley, after studying it for some tine,
wrote again to say that as he was quite
unable to read It, would his friend kind
~ repeat his answer in . more legible
form: This il al extrei!io case, but it Is
fact that some of our best judges have
been unable, after = short time, to read
the manuscript Of their own judgments.
A small case of the stupid sort comes
to US from New jersey. 1t 10 said tnat
the NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS., Gen. NichOl-
son, in apolt,gizing for his al'<cnse from
u temperance meeting, referred to 1.-THE
need Ut further restrictions on the s,lle Of
drink, !" hut the last words were read
ION the isle Of drink, and that lctt to
Indignant protests on the TART Of GER
warning to those who will not take The
trouble t" write legilly," b4t it is equal
w a warnin. to readers Of handwriting
to use what Drains they may happen I"
possess. All who have had much ex
perierce in the performance Of printers
and cupyists know very wclI that,
though misereadings are the fewc~t
when the original manuscript 10 EsOtl,
some Of the most irritating plumbers nrr
extracted from the tairest copy" those
namely, which make wretched, las.
tarl sense that l,erverts the meaning or
ent..ebles the style. The reason Is Ol'vi-
o,,s: q less strenuous attention il paid
to good handwriting than to tad. Ev> u
in ''sctting up' from plain print strange
mistakes are made for instance, in set
ting up the last line Of Guincvcr.', in u
review OF the Idyl's of the King. the
printers Of the review, having the book
before them. printed IT" wl,rr.: beyond
these riccs there is peacc"-fOr "vOices."
Handwriting bears much blame that
docs not belong to il. Of.cUurSt. Il man =
writing ought to ~. leyil,le. hut allow
ance must bc made for i.li.s.yncr,~y. IA
tigue, illness or haste. 4 handwriting
without pcculiarities is II handwriting
without landmarks, or cheeks upon
false reading; and, as an absolutely
COOL writing r. not to Ike looked for in
the business of life, the dull, ~'ilG,l-hOy |
hand, with no special character in it. is |
not without its dangers. The very
worst manuscript may be made cut |,y Il |
reader who can and will analyZc, Tut |
those who can and will ,,malyZc are few. J
Here. IL; elsewhere, there are not many !
who find Il pleasure in taking trouble
and applying Obvious general rules. !
Take the subject of*lelIimy for instance.
The rule. which decides in certain words I
when the sound is &c, tho word
should be spelt ri or ;c, il ~ short ami
r,sy that any one who had no previous
knowledge Of human dizziness would
think it utterly impossible that mis-
take should ever liz made by writer
who had on e cast his eye upon the rule;
but what the fact is, We have some If W.
melancholy reasons for knowing. Now.
take the case of y l,adly-writtcn manu-
script. You will find Il whole group Of
people lumblinS at sentence. AMI
maxim" as to one particular obscure
NOr,l yllesses upon gucsseS. all Of which
IRE simply absurd. When it is demon
,tr:,',ly clear that the missing link must
" IN advcr'', you may hear six sane
men trying nouns or verbs. 1t may h.
lear that the dark word must he one Of
strong praise. If u given kind, the die
io,,,ry possibilities Of the case lyin.
within narraw compass hut scores of
:.|se shots will I've made. because nobody
,as the brains ar the will to- say to HIM
elf, "Whatevcr this word NAV I've. we
an positively detcrmin" what it il not.
mi $" limit our range Of gi,cs.ing.' FL
making out lHltl manuscript, it is more
han halt the battle to I've able tO deter
nine ut II glance what wa,rsi neither
s n"r"an by any possibility hc.
There are here and there human ne.-
ngs WHO are by nature incapable of
vritin. Il g,,"i hand. lust ~ there are
't,ers VIII" cannot draw y straight line
" Il tr,.e circle. ar even recognize ono.
,ut the ugly manuscript o: the clumsy
i<te,l <truggler after form il usually
cry clear. Haste, unc:.siNes>. cXces.
i've work. nervous prts.a''lln, ion these
r., the chief causes -, obscure hand
vri,iny witt, most Of Us. But when Il
mans manuscript la. once made for it,
clf fixed character OF its own, neither
printers nor expcrt .'nnyists would like
% come round 10 tam" simplicity and
It would In. in another
,ay. the cas-" "f tn" love with Il >',uint.
'h" ruined his -',ii by :.oin" t" the 'n:,
>t and ::cttin: his eyes put straight:
|,s. lady c,',lli no longer meet his eye IN
,r old. a:lccti"natc way, and's'," dis
,iS>trl him. Still. there are faults q:
andwritins which are incxc,lsailc in
aud which neither cUnlpos-
or nor topyist can possibly like to see
~" ": the worst If these is lax practice
/, rct,in. the strokes I" such letters rs
, a,rin. There is no harm in cutting