The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1888-03-31
,LLEGlBLE WRITING.
Famous Men Whose Written illusions
We're Hard to Decipher.

Napoleon wrote even worse hand
than did Rufus Choate, of whose hand
writing it was said that it could not be
deciphered without the help Of a pair
of compasses and a quadrant. NaRo-
Icons letters to Josephine from Ger
many were SO illegible that the wits
used to say that they were not love let
ters, but maps of the seat of war. Prof.
Mathews says, in his essay on THE
Philosophy of Handwriting" that he
and two attorneys once spent an entire
forenoon trying to read some written
questions sent by Mr.. Choate, to be
put into deposition. After morn
ing's work they spelled out the prepo-
sition of.
tits maintained by some persons that
a mans character may be detected by
his handwriting, and there are those
who profess to read in q mans CHI
Biography what he is and is not Their
art, however. if it is any thing more
than fancy, is of doubtful utility.
Certainly only an expert could read
character by such means, and experts
rarely agree. Byron wrote, what
seems to the casual observer, school,
boys scrawl, and Emerson a sprawling
hand. The style of handwriting in
neither case prepares one for the grace
and depth of thought expressed in 50
unpromising a. way. So too, the al
most illegibIe hand of Pascal contrasts
strongly with his profound but clearly
expressed thoughts. Professor Huxley
is one of the most lucid writer's in
England, but his handwriting is at
times hard to decipher. Dean STAN
ley's prose is as transparent as plate
glass, but his correspondents found it
difficult to read even the signature to
his letters.
1t is, however, absurd to look upon
bad handwriting as an indication of
| genius. Sometimes it is simply the
result of wish to conceal bad SPELL
ing.
IF L were to write better, people
would find out how I SPELL wrote a
college student to his guardian. Sgd
ney Smith, whose hand was the woe OF
printers, might have justly excused his
bad writing by a similar confession. for
he was a poor spel]er.
Ben Hardin, an eccentric lawyer Of
entucky, wrote with a MANNED right
hand, which had been injured by the
fall Of tree. His pen scratches saved
his cases again and again from being
thrown out of court, on account Of
some blunder in pleading. When an
opposing counsel demurred to Ben's
declaration, on the ground that it was
faulty, he would reply: '.My brother
merely mistakes my handwriting g, that's
all. have it here just as he thinks it
ought to be-
The objecting counsel had to give it
up, for no one. save Ben himself, conld
say with certainty what his crow-tracks
did or did not mean.
Prof Mathews says the chirography
Of century ago is better than it's
photography; the fact suggests chat at
that time bad spelling was not looked
upon as - serious literary II. WASH"
ington wrote a large, round, c'erlS}y
hand, as easy to read as print; but his
letters abounded in misspelled words
and in erroneous punctuation, q fact
which Jared Sparks, who edited his
correspondence, carefully obliterated
But in these days of common schools
man who spells incorrectly is looked
upon as m uneduc,ted blunderer
Does that account for the fact that men
now spell better than they write?-
Youths Companion.