Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1894-03-17

| 10 any one VINO was not an expert or
who was not familiar with that particu-
lar penmanship the address would have
been Chinese puzzle. Tho Mr." was
confused conglomeration of pot hooks
the beginning the word John was
curved. meandering line run riot, the rest
of the word was composed of a waving
line. but no letters were formed. The bal
ance of the address was no better. 1t was
altogether such an address as fashionable
young ladies are fond Of using. He opened
the letter and read an invitation to dine
at o'clock the next afternoon. But how
| could that be? Who ever heard Of dinner
at O'Clock in the afternoon? Still, there 1t
| was. so he answered. accepting, and while
| ne was puzzling over the question of what
| suit he should wear he received another
note from the lady explaining that she had
| asked him to drive and not to dine. This
| same young lady, too. once gave a dinner
party on the It'll of certain month and
half OF the guests turned up on the evening
of the LIST Of the month. She couldn't even
make her figures legible. Where did she
learn to write? Why. she was taught cor
rectly enough. but she adopted the fashion
able penmanship and has simply carried It
| little further than most women do
1t is probable that most Of the readers of
| ters yellow with age and the Ink faded to
blackish brown, which their great grand
mothers wrote century ago There is
nothing in the world that brings people
and times Of the past SO forcibly before US
| as old letters. Here Is the paper that was
used. here is the very penmanship Of the
person who speaks.
Our Grnndmothers Wrote Better,
The whole thing Is very real but notice
how good the chrography is. In those
days the ladies cultivated a clear, though
small, Italian penmanship. which is slightly
and easy to read. 1t was considered an
accomplishment for a woman to write we'll.
Her letters were often written In pencil first
and then carefully copied. II they were a
little stiff and unnatural they were al any
rate well expressed and they We're worthy
| or careful preservation. There is among
the musty doucuments of the House of
Representatives a long letter from Mrs
George Washington relative to the removal
| OF her husbands remains, written at the
time it was thought they would find
final resting place under the Washing
ton monument or the crypt of the Capitol,
and the penmanship is SO beautiful that the
letter looks like a piece Of fine engrossing,
yet she wrote 1t herself and was an old
woman when she did so. But what will
future generations think of the penmanship
j of the present day? VIII our great grand
children, supposing letters are pre-
served, be able to read them? What will be
| the value Of such a note as the one men
toned at the beginning Of this article
| hundred years hence? 1t may be interest ting
as a curiosity, that Is all.
! What are you doing. my boy7" a man
said to a little fellow who had a slate and
slate pencil in his hands.
| Learning to write" said the boy
| The man went his way. but he could not
| help asking himself whether he himself
really knew how to write. What writing
. n han 49, n I.
dictates to a stenographer. who presently
brings them to him typewriter and he
scrawls line at the end, which does serv-
ice as his signature That he expects no
one to be able to read the signature is
evident, for the paper on which his letters
are written bears his name printed at the
! top, so that his correspondents may know
who is writing to them This man very
rarely writes personal notes, but when he
does he Is surprised to see how unsightly
they are. When he and his wife are sepa-
rated he writes her few lines every day.
but she is accustomed to his style and
knows toleraby well what is In every let
ter without reading It, II he were called
upon to write a long letter in his own hand
he would struggle painfully with the task
and turn ont what In the world Of news
papers would be termed very bad copy.
Winning Deteriorntinx.
Just as much with men as with women
there has been a deterioration in their pen
manship. The writings of George Wash
ington could be reproduced in fac-simile
and would be as easy to read as print So
would those of Franklin and Jefferson
Lafayette wrote not quite so well, but still
he wrote much better than most men write
now. The only one Of the big men Of the
olden times who wrote hand in any way
as bad as most modern hands was Monroe
and his was neither neat nor legible. The
truth is that letters at the present day are
not of as much consequence as they used
/ to be. Excepting those that relate to busi-
ness matters there are few long ones writ
ten from one man to another. What have
] they to write about? There is no news be-
yond a little family gossip to tell. Fancy
a member of Congress writing to friend
| at home and telling him at length of every
thing that has happened in Congress. He
never does this, but simply sends him q
newspaper, and his constituent has doubt
less had chance to read it all in his own
newspaper almost while it was happening
But 1t used to be different. James Madi-
son in Philadelphia, writing to his friends
in Virginia, had to tell them everything
that was going on or they would be abso-
lutely ignorant. His letter. addressed to
| one man, was really intended for circle
of men. and 1t was passed about from hand
to hand. The newspapers had very little
news in them, being taken up with long
arguments for and against the stage, or
about the ancient Greeks and Romans, or
about problems of government The only
way that news could be conveyed was by
see then, how important a part letters play
ed and perhaps that is the reason why the
letters of the public men Of those days are
SO valuable, and why they are generally
| so carefully written. 1t is fair to doubt
| whether the letters of the public men of
the present day would. If they were print
ed be very interesting. They would, for
enc thing, be shorter, and would be found
| to contain few facts and many opinions
Women Write the Best Letters.
Leaving out the question of penma nship
women write better letters than men do,
| and they write more Of them in a personal
way When a man goes to his office he finds
a package of letters on his desk. Some are
bills, a few are receipted bills. the others
all relate to business. There will, in all
likelihood, not be a single one that Is pure
" a personal letter. Yet, while he was at
the breakfast table. his wife and daughters
received a number of letters and every one
of them was a personal letter, a visit and
chat on paper. If, by chance, the man has
| TO write a polite note at home the chances
| are that he has to borrow a piece of note
| paper from his wife. So seldom does he
| write notes at home that he keeps none Of
the necessaries for doing so about him.
| Here" said a gentleman to the writer
a few days ago, here, just look at this note
Jones has sent me. Hang him! I'll never
ask him to dine with me again as long