Morning journal and courier., 1889-09-12
A NEGLECTED ART.
Great Annoyance Growing out of Poor Writing and Imperfect Ad-
 

Great Annoyance Growing Out of
 Poor Writing and Imperfect Ad.
 dressing.
 From the Ladies' Home JournaL]
 We have before us letter from postmas-
 ter This letter contains wise suggestion
 that should be perfectly practical in this en-
 frightened country.
 We had had some little correspondence
 with him in regard to variety of subscrib-
 CTS from his city, who had sent their sub-
 scriptions, but had given no street address,
 thus by their neglect involving both him and
 us in considerable waste of time and
 labor. We asked him as to methods of
 reachinglthe general public and teaching the
 necessities of full address with their signa- ture.
 To this he replies as follows: Your sug- gestion about notices posted in the offices is very good one, but, I am afriad, hardly practical; in fact, 1t would not be read, per haps by one in thousand calling at the of- fee. The only remedy know of which sug- gests any practical benefit will be to offer premium in our schools for the best addressed letter and newspaper by the young folks, 50 as to educate them up to the great necessity of properly directing all mail matter, and it will, of course, bring about the desired re- suit in the future."
 The suggestion of our correspondent is an excellent one, and has at the same time the merit of being perfectly practical. But, as he remarks the future alone will be bene- fited. What we want is an improvement in | the letter writer of to-day. If our subscrib- CTS could once step into our office and see for | themselves the time and trouble wasted in | fighting their neglect, we think the necessity of clear address would be impressed upon | their minds.
 The neglect of street addresses, where such ! are necessary, means delay on oHr part, and annoyance and irritation on the part of the subscriber. The paper does not reach it's destination, and we are notified of mail ly- 1 ing in the office, unbelievable for want of address.
 All this effects our business, of course, but there is a neral in the matter that lies deeper ] than all this. Since the days when all the ] letters of the young ladies who had been graduated from 'female seminary" were constructed on precisely the same principle, both as to wording and as to ehirography, a revulsion has taken place, and as is always the other extreme. Young people are per- mitted to scrawl or to cramp, at their own sweet will, and that which was at one time an over cultivated art is now neglected almost entirely, and education in letter writing is practically unknown.
 A good letter is an excellent thing, and do l let us cultivate our children up to the stand ard in this point. Just why a recitation in 8 foreign language should be more important to an American than good letter in the English language, it is hard to understand, but such seems to be the case. Let us have higher Qhe highest even) education, but let us give the children the
 best chance for acquiring that education by grounding them thoroughly in what are called "the common branches" not the least important among which is - letter writing. At least let them be taught to sign their full name, their street address, their town and their state, as well as to ad- dress their envelope in the same clear man.