The Washburn leader. [volume] (Washburn, McLean County, N.D.) 1890-1986, 1893-06-03
WRITE WORSE THAN EVER.

Authors ProgrcssinR backward
Steadily in the Matter Of ChirO.
sraphy.
1t is true that handwriting is growing
worse and worse all the world over
This Is the statement Of Mr.. Jackson
in his Theory and Practice Of Hand
writing" Official reports seem to con-
firm Mr.. Jackson's belief. On the other
hand, as pointed out by the Boston
News, persons Of considerable expert
ence in reading literary manuscripts
and examination papers Of the higher
orders can hardly agrees with him. AS
a rule, the manuscripts Of novels and
Of examination papers are legible and
even rather pleasing. The exceptions
are scarcely 4 per cent in examination
papers; in novels an author foolishly
sends in a mere rough draft. with era.
sions and additions tackled on by pins
or waste ends Of postage stamp paper.
But these examples of handwriting are
the work, except as regards many nov
els, of rather highly educated persons,
and they throw no light on the hands OF
people far from literacy. The letters
of servant girls and Of other people
without aspirations to culture are often
penned in excellent and characteristic
hands, and, on the whole. we do not
think that the age writes Ill, as a gen.
eral rule. Naturally people who have
to write great quantities of copy" for
the press or for other purposes find
their hands, If Roman and fine at first,
gradually disappear in scrawl due to
fatigue. A number of popular and pro-
life authors are suffering from "Wri.
ters' cramp," and their hands must
have been degenerated in the progress
Of the malady.
To do the work with the minimum Of
fatigue is the authors object and GER
tainly it seems as If the men and
women with the most ~slovenly hands
suffer least from writer's cramp. Mr..
Jackson, however, thinks that writing
is very bad, that it's badness is due to
bad teaching, promiscuously selected
models (he prefers examples on the
the error is in sloping as opposed to
perpendicular or vertical writing. The
natural man, he thinks, sits upright to
his work and would write perpendic.
ular, but for the prevalence of sloping
copies. From these comes the habit OF
sprawling sideways at the desk, and
that habit is bad for the eyes, bad for
the spine, bad for discipline in the
school las it facilitates tattling), and,
finally, bad for the handwriting. The
slope keeps on running down hill till
it loses itself in an indecipherable
scrawl.
Women of Their Period.
In the great momentum of the
women movement, which gains new
victims every day, n is inclined to
overlook the fact that woman was a
power morally, socially and intellect
ually in the fifteenth century as well as
the nineteenth, that the doors Of uni
yersities were open to her not only to
study but to teach within their sacred
precincts. In the University Of Sala-
manca she had a place, and when lsa-
bella of Spain desired to acquire the
Latin tongue it was to a woman that
she turned for a tutor. In Italy, even
in the thirteenth century, a noble Flor
entine lady won the palm Of oratory
in q public contest with learned doc
tors from all over the world.
The first wooden bridge, so far as known.
was the Sublician bridge at Rome, built
in the seventh century.