Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1892-06-22
THE ART OF LETTER WRITING

NoSau sbolI wa saw, elevated to an
~ tbs onestion forces itself upon u
s.Wbare among all the arts Is the arr %
rot,ar writinp?h We have the ar' %
S-ossmstino the art of dressing, tuo
ort of acting. the art OF neeuie"
the art of cooking. and hunud hted
others. but amidst the legion preseu
70 ms we hear next TO nothing, eltno.
at school or at home, about cnlti'a'luS
the art of letter writing; ana yet ~
doubtedIv it should have lts Piaoo
AMONG the list, for the art OF writih9
GOOD letter is as rare as 1t is piea'an'
and acceptable. ,;os
There are to be found elderly cynics
in the present day, who aInrm LIN
ssConyersation is lost art, anu We
must admit that there is some reason
for their structure. The taIk oi
modern drawing-room certainty iachS
the polish and "verve" that dl'tin'
onisbed the salons of Nine. RecamIer
and her brilliant contemporaries Inc
same amount of wisdom may De tneto,
possibly even more, for with our hIgner
modern education it is not kno"ieuse
that is lacking.
But though our wits and understand
ing, NAV be sharpened, and our inter-
ests active and widened ut Is true
that we miss the power of graceluI
utterance that lent such charm 10 tne
conversation of the cultured leaders Oh
society in a by-gone age. we nave
gained in one way, and lost IN another'
In our too hurried rush after brevlty,
We are in danger of losing 1.-THE soul Oh
wit" we aim at, and are stumbling
instead into rugged brusqueness oil eA-
preston that savors more OF the puolc
schoolboy than of the pollshed
smoothness of finished education.
If this be so of the art OF conVersa-
ton, and a candid critic must allow at
least a germ of truth in the assertion,
1t is still more apparent in the modern
letter writer. Doubtless there are
brilliant exceptions, but then they are
exceptions, proving, by comparison
the rule that, out of ten average cor
respondents, only one writes an anus
ing, descriptive, and Interesting let
ter. Why is this so, and why are we In
this age of progress and culture ana
neglecting one of the arts that lends
charm to intercourse, and Is In Its way
as enviable an accomplishment as music
or painting? Letters should indeed be
nothing less than word paintings, and
should be able to bring SO wildly be-
fore us the -rsonality and life OF the
writers as to almost take the place OF
actual personal intercourse.
There are few families In these days |
of travel and emigration who have not
some absent members scattered far and |
wide. Think of the delight to son and |
brothers at the antipodes when receiv |
OF thnV
dwell on every word, and treasure up |
every sentence, and too often how they |
close the eagerly looked for letter with |
sigh and the remark, al wish they |
would write more fully, and enter more !
into details and descriptions. They !
leave out SO much, and never say half |
one wants to know"
Letters from parents and sisters to
their absent loved ones are so often |
bald and insufficient. They themselves /
may be full of affection and interest, |
but they lack the power and ability to |
express themselves, aud too readily fall |
back on the excuse, "Oh, l can't write |
a good letter, you know, 1t isn't my |
forte, 1t is natural to some people, but |
not to me" Only the other day l /
heard letter from young English |
man out IN the Australian bush to his |
grandmother, a charming old lady of |
seventy, with the happy gift OF a
magic quill" DO dear grandmoth-
er, he wrote, ''let me hear from you
again very soon, and send me one OF
your delightful budgets full of the
news | yearn for. You don't know
how Ted and l read every syllab
again and again, and seem to see the
scenes you depict. Mother writes !
regularly, but somehow, neither she
nor the girls tell US much, and there Is
more IN one of your letters than IN a |
dozen of theirs" That Is Just where
1t is; and some will fill two or three
sheets with nothing but platitudes
about their health and the weather and
possibly the fashions, while others, the
rarer few, will give on one sheet food
for pleasant thoughts and CHEEKY touch
es that act as a charm to the receiver.
We little realize what power for good
and helpfulness lies in bright de-
scriptlve letter, and if, as Solomon tells
US, "A merry heart doeth good like
there is also many a tonic
to many a weary soul, worn in BODY
and mind, IN CHEEKY, realistic letter,
that comes like touch of vanished |
hand and u breeze of refreshment and |
nope.
1t follows, then. that if letter writing
be an art, 1t must, like all of its kind.
De cultivated, and cannot be expected
except in rare instances, to grow spon-
aneousl V. In the youth that we are
10 proud OF, there is no lack of intelli-
yence, no lack of feeling, no lack, in
act, of foundation; all that is wanted
S cultivation, and this seems lust the |
me thing that is overlooked. We get
rom onr cleyerest public schooIboys,
wen those whose school motto is
Manners make the man, and who are
trimming over with learning, the
,sldest, crudest style of letter writing, !
illusions badly expressed, and often
'adly spelt, that make us wonder what
hey do with their knowledge, since
hey show no power whatever of ex-
PRESSING any of it. If it could be pos
ible to give more attention in ednca-
ION to the sister arts of letter writing,
eadlng aloud, and conversation, we
hould not have to lament that our |
daughters are increasingly given to
lang, and are forgetting the modest
harm OF womanly expression, or that
o many OF our brilliant, clever men
re at a loss, If called on to make a
~ ieau alouu, VI 10 write
cries OF interesting letters. The fol-
owing clever lines on conversation ap-
'lY equally to letter writing, and NAV
close this short plea for
he more general cultivation of ssthe
en of ready writer"
Tho letter writing in its better psrt
May be esteem d gift and not an art
fet much depends, as in the tilIer's toiI
On culture and the sowing of the soil