Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1884-07-18
AUTHORS MANUSCRIPTS.
Peculiaritips OF PenmanshiD OF sOme
Celebrated Writer'S
Boston Cor. PHILADELPHIA Press

Celebrated Writer'S.
Boston Cor Philadelphia Press
Mrs. Louise Chandler MouitOn's
manuscript is Joy to the soul of editor
and compositor, written in clear. I'M
shaded, perfectly le9ible hand, punctu-
atel, capitalized and Photographed with
the utmost exactneSS. She sometimes
tells with glee and pardonable pride
how, when she was less known to fame
than now. her health was proposed by
George William Curtis at New York
press dinner, as the contributor who
furnished perfect copy.
BY means of fac smile repro luctions
everybody is familiar with the small.
elegant chirographv of Longfellow and
Winters rather scrawly, unshadel
hand. The manuscript of the former
was neat and precise, that of the latter
suggests that it has been windswept.
There was certain resemblance be-
tween the writing of Whittier and that
of Emerson. but the latter was smaller
and more compact i'll character.
DR.. Holmes manuscript, trig and
tidy as It's author, is in small, running
hand, which gives one the impression of
having been written with great ease and
rapidity.
Mrs. Mary l.. Booth, editor of Iar-
per's Bazaar, writes i'll uneven, easy
characters, not difficult to read, al
though her copy is less legibe than her
letters. Mrs. Julia Ward Howes liter
ary work goes to the printer in writing
wholly unshatled and with separate let
tiers often twisted ard crushed out of
shape, yet offering no especial difficulty
to the compositor. Mrs. Celia ThaXter
writes an odd, back-handcd chirography,
with a margin on the left but running
sharply to the edge of the paper on the
right.
Mrs. Lucy Stone Blackwell pats her
editorials for The Woman's Journal on
the backs of circulars or any scrap Of
paper which comes to hand, in stiff.
school-girlish character, awkward and
uniformed, with frequent erasures aud
numerous paragraph marks. Col. L.
| W. Higginson's contributions to the
same periodical are sent in on thin brown
MANILA paper, in careless, nervous,
compact hand. with moderate number
of emendations.
Miss Fletcher, author of "kismet and
other novels, produces Ms. which has
the clearness and sharpness of an en-
graved page, with an elegant, somewhat
affected style of chirography.
George Parsons Lathrops Ms. is in
nervous, jerky characters, with few
erasures, and an exactness of pun, tua-
ton and printers marks, which proh-
ably results from his editorial expert
ence.
w. d. HowelTs handwriting is rather
clear, very irregular and decidedly
cramped.
Henry James writes a very black,
heavy hand, which has much the APP
pearance of having been written with
a quill. 1t is rather blind, the final vs.
and g's running off into funny wigglcs
and quavers.
Nora Perry is fond of violet ink, and
writes q scrawling, graceful hand.
which. in moments of haste, melts
away into intricacies of illegiblity. 1t
is true that it can be deciphered, but it
much endangers the eternal welfare OF
the compositor.
Jean Ingelow's copy is scrawled upon
unruled paper in the most loose AMI
Uniformed of handwritings, yet with
nothing angular about the characters,
which, moreover, are easily read
The manuscript of VIM. Lloyd Gar
rison is bare, because he had horror
of autograph collections, and took pains
to have his copy returned to him. The
example before me covers four sheets of
ruled note paper, closely written in
purple ink, in O precise, old-fashione,l
hand, exactly correct in punctuation,
photography, capitalization and para
graphing; indeed, save for the fact of
its being written upon both sides of the
leaf. it is what q printer would consider
an ideal piece of copy.
Mrs A. ID. Il. Whitney scrawls in a
light, scraggy Italian hand all over her
sheet, not easy to read and not very
pretty to see.
Julian Hawthorne writes hand in
which the letters are all well formed,
but which are SO small that one almost
needs microscope to make them out.
| Mr.. L. b. Aldrich, who himself write
a fine-looking page, but in chirog-
raphy in which the characters are SO
hastily made as to have the appearance
of being but half-formed, expresses a
hearty dislike for manuscript in the
typewriter, yet Mark Twain's copy is
in this form. His penmanship is clear
and business-like, but he dictates now.
a-days to stelographer, who
prints the result upon type
writer as aforesaid. One of the
oldest looking of manuscripts which
one sees now is that of William
Winter. The first glance at his copy
gives one the impression that it is writ
ten in Japanese character, so strange
and crooked is it. 1t is easily read,
however; is written on small sheets
and liked by the compositor.
Miss Louisa Alcott cultivates a
swinging back-hand penmanship, the
lines far apart and easily read. Lucy
Larcom's hand is cramped and old
fashioned, hike that of a very old lady
and the same is true to less degree of