The Arizona sentinel., 1886-04-24
PLAIN WRITING.
An Amusing Incident Showing the Wick
 edness of IlIegible Chirography.

The importance of writing plain and legible hand is nowhere better under stood than among the men who spend their days and nights in newspaper offices. The numerous soul-harrowing blunders that have escaped the eyes of editors, compositors and proof-readers and reached the bright sunlight of pub licity in cold type might be enumerated by legions, but we believe there have been very few occasions when illegible penmanship has had the effect of setting an entire community by the ears, pre- cipitating heated discussion a,.d foment- ing internecine strife and local discord. Yet such case has occurred in Penn- sylvania, if the apparently veracious and interesting account of Philadelphia paper may be believed.
 A little over twelve years ago the en- terprisipg residents of the town of Hat boro suddenly became alive to the fact that nothing would so greatly contribute to the material welfare of the village and start it irresstibly on the broad highway to metropolitan position as bridge across the quiet little stream that crept past the outskirts of the corporation. The matter grew in successive stages from double-leaded editorials and con- munications by Taxpayer, " Constant Reader" and ''veritas in the local pa- per to the dignity of political issue. The building of the bridge across the Pennypack formed the keynote, so to speak, of one of the most exciting and heated campaigns ever enjoyed by the citizens of the county. The election was closely fought, and the party which favored ''public improvements won the day. The law provided that view CTS should be appointed to look into the subject and report their conclusions to the grand jury for final decision. The board of viewers was appointed by the newly elected officials, and as matter of course they unanimously recommend- ed to the grand jury the immediate con- struction of the bridge.
 Just at this point the matter seems to have been dropped, but for what reason the chronicle does not relate. Perhaps it was discovered that the county treas ury was in condition that would not warrant so heavy draft up- on it, or perhaps some more absorb ing question arose, in the dis cussion of which the enterprising citi- zens lost sight of the bridge issue. It may be that the metropolitan aspirations of Hatboro encountered a chilling frost, under the influence of which the bridge across the Pennypack drifted into for gefulness. Be this as it may, the great improvement over which the famous victory was so gallantly won was never conSummated.
 But after quiet slumber of twelve years there has arisen new c,eEdand for that bridge, and recently the musty records of the county were tumbled over in search of the grand jury's indorse- ment. It was finally fished up and eagerly scanned to see what it was. And here is where the real trouble began.
 A local attorney chanced to have been a member of the grand jury, ,and to him was delegated the duty of putting the report in writing. With laudable pro- fessional zeal he succeeded in producing a scrawl that is not nearly as legible as Chinese, after the lapse of a dozen years, even to the lawyer himself. The faction which favors the bridge profess to be able to read the last sentence of the report. The opposing faction claim that it is as plain as print to them, too, but the two translations do not agree in the most essential particular. Whether the grand jury meant to say: 1.-The grand Inquest moo0 concur in the within re- port" or '1O1-concur, no impartial tribunal is able to decide. The old fight is, therefore, on once more, and with re- doubled bitterness. The double-leaded editorials with no uncertain sound have reopened in the local paper, and "'Tax- payer," Constant Reader" and "Ver- itas' have taken their pens in hand with all the vigor of their perennial youth. The quiet serenity of Hatboro is again disturbed by the clamor of the warning forces of the bridge and anti-bridge parties, and the only thing the people are unanimous in is the conviction that man who can't write so that he can at least read his own production should buy a typewriter at once.
 Meanwhile, that great artery of com merce, the Pennypack, goes unspanned to the sea.-DetrOit Tribune.