St. Landry democrat., 1890-06-14
LEARNING TO WRITE.

How few there are who think what a
wonderful thing it Is to know now W
write to make marks which shall! express
sounds and ideas. Children think they
have quite trouble enough learning to write
when COPIES are set for them, out suppose
they had no copy and no written language,
NO letters, and no words. how could they
send their news and their thoughts TO
other lsuds2
MANY heather nations have no written
language; and among the first things
missionaries have to do, they must learn
their language, and invent or adapt an
alphabet to record the sounds OF the
words, and then teach the people to read
and write.
A missionary once wanted certain tool,
which one of his fellow workers was USE
ing long way off. He told native TO
90 and ask for the tool and bring it to him.
He said, "He will not give it to me-" Inc
missionary then took chip and wrote on
it, ''Send me the frow," and gave 1t to the
native, and told him to go and get the
tool.
The native was unwilling to 60, but the
missionary assured him that if he carried
that chip the man would give him the tool
he wanted.
He could not believe it, chip could not
talk how would the man know what was
wanted?
At length he went and found the man,
and turning his face away from him SO
that the man should not read anything In
his countenance or gather anything tiom
the glance of his face, he handed him the
chin. The man at once gave him the tool
he wanted, and he brought it back. But
he treasured up that chip as one OF the
greatest curiosities that he had ever seen,
and was constantly telling his friends
about 'the chip that could talk.
Do YOU ever think what wonderful
thing it is that you can make piece OF
paper talk? That with crooked lines ana
straight lines and curved lines, with light
lines and heavy lines, with dots and dashes
| and marks of various kinds, you can con-
| vey your sorrows and joys, your questions
| and answers, your desires and fears, to
| persons whom you have never seen, VINO
| live in distant lands, and whose faces you
may never behold?
TIE art of writing is a most wonderful
art; and yet there are children who cry
and pout and make up faces because they
are asked to learn how to do this wonder
full thing. Surely every bright and intel
ligent child should be delighted to learn
how to make piece of paper talk.
1t is very important that children learn
how to write very plainly. One of the
first things to do is to learn to make
straight marks, then curved marks, and
many people are not taught to write in the
wisest way. :.
IfIwere to teach children to write, l
should ask them to sit by the side of a
table, so that their right arm when laid
upon the table, from the elbow to the
hand, would lay parallel with the edge OF
the table, while the elbow would reach
back two or three inches over the end OF
the table, leaving the ball or muscle OF
the forearm to rest on the table. L should
then ssk them to hold their pen in any
way they pleased, but simply to hold ii
firmly, and never bend finger in any mo-
ton they might make with the pen, but
let every motion of the pen come by roll
ing the arm upon the muscle as an axis
and I would then have them commence to
make curves and circles. without bending
their fingers, simply using the fingers to
hold the pen firmly. When they had
learned by this process to make curves,
which they can soon do with ease and reg
ularity, they might undertake to form let
ters in the same way. This simple d:rec-
ton would save much of the WEAKNESS and
hard work of writing, and would do more
than anything else l know to insure
graceful and easy style of penmsnshlp.
There are some people who write So
beautifully, and put so many fourishes on
their paper that plain people have hard
work to read the writing. 1t is altogether
best to leave the fourishes for the whiting
master. who is anxious to show what ne
can do. Children in learning to write
should endeavor to make their letters as
plain as print, and if they think clearly,
and know Just what they wish to write,
and then write it so plainly that evely-
body can read il and nobody can misunder.
stand it, people will be glad to read theil
letters.
We sometimes have writing sent us
that is as obscure as Egyptian hlerogly-
phics, and the worst of all is, when peo-
Die have written letter with some degree
of plainness, they write their names ano
places of residence with such hop sklE
scribble that no one can tell who they are
or where they live. 1t is great dea
better to write carefully and plainly, fo'
when you cannot read persons writing
you begin to doubt whether he has written
anything that is worth reading.
1t is said that a compositor or type-set-
ter in New York printing office. was once
given piece of copy written by the famous
editor of the paper. He looked at it in
despair and said eff Belshazzar had seen
such handwriting as that on the wall he
would have been more frightened than he
was"
We hope that all Of our readers will
learn to write so that their handwriting
will not frighten Belshazzar or anybody
else, and wnan they have learned to write
neatly and plainly, how easy it will be to
write beautiful letters to father and mother
and brothers and sisters and how pleasant
it will be to be able to put upon paper the
thoughts and ideas which they have in
their minds, some of which perhaps nay
be printed, and scattered all over the
word to instruct and encourage and en-
tighten and save their fellow men.-Lattte
| Christian.
She Stared Calmly Ahead.