The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1895-10-23
TRFEORM IN PENMANSHlP.
The Copy F!ate Is No Longer the h'Ehe9'
TYNE of Excellence.

Inc SOpJ iD'S
Tyne of Excellence.
Probably all who have had a COM.
mon school education remember WV
idly the agonies they suffered dur
ing the half hour day devoted to
making pothooks and copying un-
meaning phrases in their writing
books. The same number of unfor-
tunates realize with equal vividness
how widely different their own pres
ent chirography is from the flowing
CODY plate which they tried to lml-
tate, with moro or less success, IN
their youthful days.
The penmanship of the world has
always been far short of the ideal
copybook standard, but since the
general introduction of the type
writing machine it has grown from
bad to worse. The part of the COM
munity who have university educa-
tions are worse off in this regard
than the common school graduates,
for the reason that if they ever did
write a half way decent hand as tho
result of their teachers strenuous
efforts it was completely ruined
when they began to take notes OF
lectures at college.
The world moves, and now tho ed
ucational experts have arrived at
the conclusion that the whole sys-
tenn of instruction in writing is
wrong; that the beautiful and elab-
orato curlycues and intricate shad-
ing of tho old copy plate system are
not only useless and dif1lcultto &C
uuire, but that, in the generality OF
cases, they are really unrcadablo.
Every one has received numbers of
lettors written by some so called
first class ponman, which are beau
tiful to look at in the regularity of
their strokes and curves, but ex-
tremely hard to read. The school
teachers have come to q realizing
sense of a fact that tho first purpose
of handwriting is to be legible and
not artistically beautiful, and that
tho same amount of time formerly
spent in celebrating shading and
curves, if spent in practicing the
modern perpendicular hand, will
give four times better results in the
way of O mastery Of the art, greater
freedom in writing and the acquisi
ton of O style which will be lesiblo,
even if it departs from regularity.
The same gradual transition has
taken place in the art of lettering as
practiced by craftsmen. Twenty
years ago craftsmen and engineers
learned elaborate lettering, the rus
tic style, tho old English and many
others, and many weary hours were
spent in the drafting room putting
these varied hieroglyphics on TIT
drawings. The doctrine that sim
plicity and utility are the highes
form of beauty has made headwa.
among the craftsmen, as elsewhere
The first reform WIS in tho substi
tuition of plain block lettering of tn
old style. The making of block let
tering, however, is q slow task, ant
much valuable timo was wasted
The next reform was the introduc
ton of the German "rundschrift,
which is g species of freehand worl
dono with "a special pen which
shades broadly and almost automat
ically. The ''rundschrif5" may b
put on a drawing with great rapid
ty, but it requires considerable skill
to do it we'll, and the result Of poo
or mediocre work is painful to tn
eye.
The whole subject of lettering ha
now become O lost art. The drafts
man of today doesn't ink his finger
and break his back at anything c
the kind. Ho buys d box of assorte
printed letters on paper or clotl
with we'll gummed backs, and whe
his drawing is done licks the bac
of o sufficient number of these le
tiers and affixes thom to his DRAWN
after tho manner of the humid
postage stamp.-New York TRIBUNE