The Penn's Grove record., 1892-06-17
THE AIT or Letter WHITING

srt, the question forces itself up N us,
"Wberp amor z Ill the arts is he art of
1rt.rr wr;iipg?" We have the art of
In. ssmaking, the art o. dressing, the
art ,f acting, the art of heedlew0rk.
,,a art II cooking, and n hun lred
o,nrrs; but amidst he legion pr sented
In rs. Va, hear next to nothing, either
at school or at home, about enltIva ing
the art of lttt,r writing; and yet un.
doub,edly it should have its place
amoug tie list, for the ant OF writ,n, a
GOOD letter Is as rare MS 1t is pleasant
and acceptable.
There are to re found ellerly cynics
in the present day, who affirm that
"Convefsafiou is II lost art" and we
mi II Il Init that here is some reason
fnr ,neIr stGcture. The talk Of a
modern trawIng-ro IN certainly lacks
tba uuli,h sud ''vcrve" that di tin.
onis lel lle Ions OF Nine. Recamier
and he hr llaut contemporaries. The
same nmouu Of wisdom may be the e.
possibly even more, for with our higher
modern p3u alton it is not knowledge
that is lacking.
Pnt though nnr wits and understand
ing may e sharpeneJ, and our inter-
ests active and widened at is trne"
that we mss the power Of graceful
utt,r,p1r that lent such charm to the
conversation of tie cultured leaders of
society ia a bs-gone ags. We have
gained in one way. and lost in another.
In our toe hurried rush after brevity,
We are in dan,s of losing 'the soul Of
vii" We am at, and are stumbling
instead into rugged brusqueuess of ex-
me- ssiou that savors more of the public
SCHOOL, oy than of the polished
smoo,buess Of a iuished education.
If this lie 50 Of the art of CONVERSE
ton. and Il candid critic must allow at
lrAst II germ Of truth in the assertion,
# is still more apparent in the modern
letter writer. Doubtless there r
b illiant excel tons. but then they are
exceptions, proving, by comparison,
the rule that, ont of ten average cor
respondents. only one writes an anus
ing, descriptive, and interesting let
ter. Why thus so, and why are we in
this age Of progress and culture and
neglecting one Of the arts that lends a
charm to intercourse, aud Is 10 its way
rs ell viable an &C 'omplishmeut as music
or painting? Letters should ind ed be
nothing less than word paintings, and
should be able to bring SO wildly be-
fore us II D rsonality and life of the
writers a, to almost take the place Of
actual personal intercourse.
There aie 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-
ing letters from home. How they
dwell on every word, and treasure up
| every sentence, and too often how they
close the eagerly looked for letter with
a sigh and the remark, 81 wish they
! would write more fully, and enter more
into details and descriptions. They
leave u SO much, and never say half
one wants to know"
Letters from parents and sisters to
their absent loved ones are 80 often
bald and insufficient. They themselves
NAV be full Of affection and interest,
but they lick the power and ability to
express Themselves, and too readily fall
back on the excuse, "Oh, l can't write
a good letter, you know, it isn't my
forte, it is natural to some people, but
not to me" Only the other day l
heard a letter from a 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 | read every syllable
again and again, and seem to see the
scene 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
it is; and some will fill two Oh 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 a power for good
and helpfulness lies in a bright de-
scriptive letter, and if, as Solomon tells
US, "a merry heart doeth good like a
medicine, there is also many a tonic
to many a weary soul, worn in body
and mind. IN a CHEEKY, realistic letter,
that comes like a ''touch OF a vanished
hand and Il breeze of refreshment and
hope.
1t follows then, that II letter writing
be an art, it must, like all of its kind,
be cultivated, and cannot be expected,
except IN rare instances, to grow spon-
taneously, In the youth that we are
so proud Of. tn re- is no lack of intelll-
gence, no lack of feeling, no lack, In
fact, of foundation; all that is wanted
is cultivation. and this SEEM Just the
one thing that is overlooked. We get
from on cleyerest public s~choolboys,
even those whose school motto is
Manners make the man" and who are
Drumming over with learning, the
baldest, cfudest style Of letter writing,
illusions badly expressed, and often
BADLY speit, that make us wonder what
they do with their knowledge, since
they show 10 power whatever OF ex-
pressing any of it. If it could be pos
sible to give more attention in educa-
ton to the sister arts of letter writing,
reading aloud, and conversation, We
should not have to lament that our
daughters are increasingly given to
slang, and are forgetting the modest
charm OF Eomanly expression, or that
SO many Of our brilliant, clever men
are at a loss, If called on to make a
speech, to read aloud, Or to write a
series OF Interesting letters. The fol-
lowing clever lines on conversation ap-
ply equally to letter writing, n may
appropriately close this short plea Tor
the more general cultivation OF "the
pen of a ready writer"
Ibo lttttI writing in its better part
May be esleem'd a gift and not an art,
Yet much depends, as in the tlller's TOLL