The Logan County banner. [volume] (Logan, W. Va.) 1889-1903, 1890-01-23
LETTER WRITING.
IlegibiRty and Brsvity the. Correct
Things Nowadays.


Years Ago Much Time and Thought and
Large Quantities of Ink and Paper
Were Required to Write Let
80 tors q La Mode.
Letter writing is an art. Most things
are arts nowadays That is to say, most
Of The details OF life have become so sub
tie and complicated in the light Of our
Hipdern progress that only long study
and careful practice enables US to mas
teF-them. Thus we speak of the ele-
ganees Of society as science, phi
=iiesettifrte- indeed, and the fact is that
such expressions sound exceedingly
scholarfy and high-bred, whether they
mean any thing or not. As to letters.
they are in danger Of following the six
volume novel to melancholy oblivion.
Yet people write vastly more than for
mcrly, only they do not write letters.
They haven't time. The business man
contents himself with an occasional line
to his family when out OF town, and has
not in all probability written letter III
three pages in years, save on matters
touching his profession.
Even the schoolgirl has lost the ardor
with which she entered the ranks as
correspondent, and has cut down the
list q letters to be written each fort
night from thirty to three The ma
tom whose household cares are forcing
Der to the wall has no leisure for more
than semi-annual greeting to her
friends, and by and BY she loses their
addresses and gives up in despair, sue
etnbing as 1T were to the press of cir
cumstances. The young man is too
much, in love with the world Immediate
" about him to care to sustain his rela-
tons with the companions Of his earlier
life unless they are in some way essen
tlal to his happiness, and 3d. after q
year or two, he has no regular corre-
spondents save the members of his fam
= ily, and, perhaps, one or two staunch
friends.
Now, all this being inevitable, Is
probably right. None OF us coyet the
return of the days when long and fire.
quent letters were the test OF o sincere
attachment We know-at least most
OF us know-that before so stern q criti-
cism OF affection we should not be able
to stand. good many things have
doubtless conspired to the present lack
of interest in correspondence. Among
these is travel It is now possible to
see our friends much oftener than of
-~eba, thanks to the increased facilities
Tor accomplishing journeys which at
one time were fraught with danger and
difficulty. Therefore, instead of writ
ing at length we simply get up some
morning, and, grip in hand, set of to
cross the continent. A visit is better
thana letter, and it doesn'G take much
more time now. A few lines suffice to
bridge the intervals and are all for
which we have leisure. -'-'''sr''.-'
Another fertile source of indifference
as to letter-writing is the flood OF
healthy and entertaining literary matter
poured continually upon the market.
Every inducements is offered US to read,
and absorbed in this or that social or
political issue, we are prone to neglect
Individual claims when they come to us
IN the way of letters. Besides, the
writer's Of many lengthy epistles must
OF necessity ask himself by and by
where is the good of it ALL Is it bene-
tt5to him, or to those to whom he writes?
It's pleasant, you say, to communicate
with our friends, o yes, but this age Is
so practical that as rule we demand
more than simply gratifcati as . rea-
son for what, we do. Low rates Of
postage and the marvellous perfection of
system which now characterizes our
mail department. have multiplied the
: number of letters written by all classes
. hundred-fold. None so poor now but
may write when and where he will and
as often as he likes. But double postage
Is less and less on letters of friendship,
and only the very. young and romantic
md their letters overweight
An epistle was a portentous affair un-
: der the old regime. 1t represented much
time and thought. A kind OF radical
preparation was necessary to its con-
coction. One must have q fair education
: TO cope with 1t. The manual of APP
proved letter-writing was in large de-
rnand, and the more stilted and verbose
Us, style the more unnatural and forced
the vein, the surer was the effusion to
ellcit the admiration and wonder of him
10 whom 1T was addressed. Whole poems
.snot infrequentIy varied the monotonyof
prose and the pages were carefully num-
oered even to forty secondly. All this
IS Row practically unknown even to the
most ambitious.
We are all familiar with the elegant
serawl which enables one who would do
mas duty to run very short sentence
over four consecutive pages beginning
WITH the last and ending with the first,
!Hus7hopelessly putting to rout the UNI
Il inflated, and we revere the genius
winch brought such an admirable state
OF things TO pass. Life is too short to
waste IN many words, especially when
these.-. words must be elaborated on
paper Some of our advanced thinkers
&c us that the day is not far distant
wen the pen, like the instrument Of
war shall be used no more, when we
ehail not learn to write any more than
10 night, but when the trusty type
Wt'ter to whom we may safely confide
an our secrets will do all but think for
lis.
u only some one would invent an.
s,,S1utomatle machine capable Of doing our
p'din work we might make ready to
ENJOY ourselves in earnest. The ma
pu'ne would not be overtaslxed In most
instances 1t might even take . hol-
zlaay now and then. But the bono
factors Of our kind are not content with
me typewriter as 1t now exists, not to
speak OF the slow and numbering PEN IS
We know IT. They tell us that little
isrther on the characters now in vogue
WIZ oe obsolete, and Whist u NV
saeSn ~ ssenosssphy and prssflseA ~
9 1x l4