The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-04-30

Copy That is Vile-The Amateur
Takes Gold-Enameled Pen, But the
Veteran Scribbler Doesn't Go in for
Fixings.
copyrighted 1881
NEW YORK, April 2S.--A penholder of
1spis lazuli or the quill of an ostrich or ex-
otic bird is the implement with which my
lady writes her acceptance of an invitation
to an afternoon tea this spring. She dips
her pen into huge inkstand OF crystal
whose gold stopper lies in a crystal
tray at its side She dries her signature
with a blotter of lowered brocade and
seals her note with sealing wax which
she takes from cloisonne bowl. All this
time she is sitting at a tiny French writ
ing table whose cover is figured velvet,
with a monogram of solid silver let in
to one corner and little watch set in an
other.
When Louisa NJ Alcott wrote "Little
Women" ito shingle the barn. she used for
paper the reverse side of some of her fathers
old manuscripts and rested the whole par
aphernalia on a shabby lap Ca5let lying on
her knees. Writing for pleasure and
writing for business are apt to be some
what different things Few people who
write constantly cultivate many of the
graces of writing, though Amelie Rives
is whimsical about the pens she uses
and the small notions about her writing
table as she is about her attire and the CIR
cumStances under which she receives her
guests.
OF the women writers and editors, Miss
Mary L. Booth, of Hd'per's BdzGr, sits at
large, square desk in her den in the ram
bling inconvenient, uphill and-down-dal
Harper's building, with heaps of manuscript
pigeon-holed about her, everything sys-
tematic and in order, everything for use
and nothing for ornament, all Characters
tic of a woman who has written the dain-
test of TRANSACTIONS of Laboulaves fables
and fairy tales, but who keeps her Office
hours daily with infexible regularity and
makes the Bazaar a conspicuOuSly well
managed magazine. Miss Booths hand
writing is easy, but uneven, not difficult to
read but varying in leglbility according to
the haste of the writing
1t takes a big writing table and sometimes
two or three smaller accessories to hold the
books pamphlets and manuscripts which
Mrs. Martha j. Lamb, the historian, needs
for daily reference in the sauctum of the
Magazine of Americdn History A small
cleared spot in front of the writer, with
large square of blUtting paper over it and
volumes piled high on both sides sees the
rapid formation Of the small, not grace
full, but perfectly distinct and readable
characters which mark the chirography of
hrs. Lamb.
Mrs. Henry Ward Beecher does her writ
ing at small but plain and business-like
lady's desk, with a photograph of Mr.
Beecher standing upon it. She writes a
hand which is as plain as copper plate, but
somewhat cramped and old-fashioned. Mrs
Croly, Jenny june writes with extreme
rapidity and between more frequently than
upon the lines. She writes the hand of a
woman who has written so long and so
much that the operation has Iecome purely
mechanical one, and the letters are formed
very plainly in the morning, when fresh at
work, becoming almost illegible at night
after many hours at the desk. Both Mrs.
Croly and Mrs Lamb can put great deal
of copy on a single page.
Mrs. Frank Leslie has her desk upon a
raised platform in her publication office,
making a little dais at which she sits hard at
work all day. She has sometimes Japan
.ese screen with bunch of ribbons upol it
at her back, but this is the only touch of
bric-a-brac in a room which belongs TO rou-
tine duty and not to play. It is a notice
able fact, indeed, how bare of all pictures,
embroideries, artistic or decorative notions
of any kind are the offices of the women
editors in general. Some of them may be
noted, like Mrs. Leslie, for her diamonds
and toilets, Mrs. Lamb for her pictures
or Miss Booth for her old china and curios,
Outside of business hours, but from till
4, pen and paper require no ornamental
additions. Mrs. Leslie's desk has tiers of
drawers reaching to the floor on either side
and it is in one of these that she keeps the
stereotype plate of the approved edition
of her refusal of offers Of marriage, while
Others hold clippings of recent articles
contributed to newspaper syndicates by
her.
The Marquise LAMA does all her writing
for the press on blue paper ruled, with red
lines, and sometimes family scented. She
is the delight of compositors for her script
Is like print FOR regularity and legibility,
with never a mark or erasure to mar its
neatness. Laura c. Holloway writes a
large, bold, and handsome hand, but one
which is graceful and easily read, unmis-
takeable, indeed, and SO characteristic that
once seen it is usually remembered. MILDLY
Morgan, the famous cattle reporter of the
New York Times, writes a formal, crampei
and angular hand which needs study to de-
cipher. Nora Perry has fancy for violet
ink and writes a pretty hand, which is as
bad as Greeley's to gather meaning from,
If much more graceful. Mrs. A ID. r.
Whitney writes an italian hand which sends
out its light tendrils all over the page like
climbing grape vine, not easy TO make
out Miss Alcott used to send her copy TO
the printer in a round back hand penlnan-
ship, the lines very far apart to allow for
emendatIons.
Mrs. Louise Chandler Moulton used to
tell tale of New York press dinner at
which @. w. Curtis offered a toast to her
health, she being then not well known TO
fame, as the ''writer who sent in perfect
copy" Every letter is formed carefully,
che punctuation is accurate to the last de-
gree, while capitals and paragraph marks
are never missing where they are needed.
Elizabeth Stuart Phelps writes "A small,
sharp-cornered hand, that would be precise
il much practice had not given it some
freedom. Clara Barton used to be a copyist
in the Patent Office at Washington, before
the war, and her small, round, neatly formed
characters, written frequently on every
other line only. bear testimony TO the work
done at that time Grace H. Dodge, of the
New York School Commission. writes a larg-
ish hand, clear, graceful and decided. Miss
Francis +. Willard writes a bold, plain
hand when she sits at a desk to do it, but so
much of her correspondence is carried on
in railway cars that frequently specimens
of her penmanship are sharp up and down
strokes, trial TO the patience and the
eyes. Ellen Terry writes commonly on a
thin rice paper, and likes a broad nibbed
pen. She bears down with decision aud