The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1882-02-17
READING BAD PENMANSHIP.
y Hptd Readers, Not had Penmen, Mainly
II Fauit-TO AnaIyxe the Great Thing
Needed.
[London SPECTATOR

- fauit-TO Analyxe the Great Thing
Needed.
London SPECTATOR
anecdotes of ludicrous, or worse than
Mdlerous, mistakes occasioned by bad
handwriting are numerous enough.
pome of them are as obviously invented
Is Moore's freshly blown noses" for
freshly blown roses" and others tell
strongly of the stupidity of the readers.
I small case of the stupid sort comes to
y from Jersey. 1t is said that the
lieutenant Governor, General Nickol-
ssn, In apologizing for his absence from
temperance meeting, referred to " the
eeds offurther restrictions on the sale OF
d1nk, bat that the last few words we're
rad in the Isle of Drink" and that
this led to indignant protests on the
part OF certain citizens" This is quoted
az a warning to those who will not
take the trouble to write legibly," but it
Is Equally warning to readers of hand
W4tlng 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
thg most irritating blunders are ex-
tracted from the fairest "copy those,
namely, which make a wretched, bastard
sense, that perverts the meaning or en-
feebles the style. The reason is OBJ
ylous less strenuous attention is paid
70 good handwriting than to bad. Even
N setting up" from plain print,
strange mistakes are made; for instance,
n, setting up the last line of "Guin-
evere " in review of the "Idyls of the,
King, the printers of the review, having
the book before them, printed, ITO
where beyond these Uices 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 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
lie, the dull schoel-boy hand, with no
special character in it, 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 a
pleasure in taking trouble and applying
obvious general rules. Take the subject
of spelling, for instance. The rule
which decides in certain words whether,
vuh sco o. ~ l.
spelled ed or Se is SO short and easy that
any one who had no previous knowledge
of human dullness would think it utterly
impossible that mistake, should ever
be made by writer who had once cast
his eye upon the rule: but what the fact
is we lave some of fia melancholy rea-
Ss9sas knowing haw, take the cege
Of IN written manuscript. You will
find whole group Of people fumbling
at 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 it 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 word neither is nor can by any
possibility be.
There are here and there human be-
ings who are by nature incapable of
writing a good hand, just as there are
others who can not draw a straight line
or a. 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-thes
are the chief causes of obscure hand
writing with most of us. But when O.
mans manuscript has once made for it.
self fixed character of its own neither
printers nor expert copyists would like
it to come round to tame simplicity and
correctness. It would be, in another
way, the case of the lover with a squint
who ruined his suit by going to the ocu-
list and getting his eyes put straight !;
the lady could no longer meet his eye in
the old afectionate 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 ~. There is no harm in cutting
down certain syllables, such as maepat 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, and so is that
kind of bad writing in which we can see
in the badness egotistic self-assertion
disregard of the eyes and wits OF
others.