Pike County press. (Milford, Pa.) 1895-1925, 1896-11-20

n certain u1reCJlOn,u anu 10 copy CHdi-
acters so large that they have no re-
semblance to writing at all and to
care particularly about up-strokes
and down strokes, and all manner
of minutiae, which if they are of any
value at all, will soon come of them
selves.
We believe that the whole of this
method is a mistake-that there is
no single system of mecanique for
writing, and that a child belonging
to the educated classes would be
taught much Better and more easily
if, after being once enabled to make
and recognize written letters, it
were let alone, and praised or child
den not for its method, but for the
result. Let the boy hold his pen as
he likes, and make his strokes as he
likes, and write at the pace he likes
hurry, of course, being discourag-
ed-but insist strenuOusly and per-
sistently that his copy shall be legi-
BILE, shall be clean, and shall ap-
proach the good copy set before him
namely, a well-written letter, not a
rubbishy text on a single line, writ
ten as nobody but a writing-master
ever did OF will write till the
worlds end. He will make a mud
die at first, but he will soon make a
passable imitation of his copy, and
ultimately develop a Characteristic
and strong hand, which may be bad
or good, but will not be either
meaningless, undecided, or illegible.
This hand will alter, of course, very
greatly as he grows older. 1t may
alter at eleven, because it is at that
age that the range of the eyes is
fixed, and short-sight betrays it
self and it will alter at seventeen,
because then the system of taking
notes at lectures, which ruins most
hands, will have cramped and tenn
porarily spoiled the writing; but
the character will form itself again
and will never be deficient in clear.
ness or decision.
We are not quite sure that another
process ought not to be gone through
before writing is taught at all. Sup
pose our boys and girls were taught
to read manuscript a little? They
are taught to read print, but manu-
script is not print or very like it,
and they are left to pick up the
power of reading that the best way
they can they never devote half an
hour a day for six months to manu-
script reading. If they did, it would
be easier to them all their lives, and
they would learn TO believe in logi-
bility as the greatest, or at any rate
the most useful, quality that writ
ing can display-an immense i'm
provement, if our experience can be
trusted, in the usual youthful ideal
on the subject. The business of life
no doubt, soon teaches children to
read manuscript but many of them
never read it easily, and restrain
through life an unconquerable aver
sion to the work, from the fatigue
and vexation which it causes them.
We have known men so conscious of
this defect that they always have
important letters read aloud to them
and others who would refuse any
work, however anxious on other
grounds to accept it, if it involved
the frequent perusal of long manu-
scripts in varied handwIitings. No
doubt the tendency to a broad and
coarse but beautifully legible hand
writing, which has conquered the
upper class and is slowly filtering
downward, is diminishing this re-
luctance, but it would be more rapid
ly removed if q little trouble were
taken to teach children to read
handwriting. They hardly see any
till they begin to receive correspond
ence and are never compelled to
read any, and consequently learn to
write what they cannot read, with
out intelligence and without plea
sure.-Spectator.
o that our correspondents would
write legibly In our. drawers are
now, and into the waste basket Sc
pulachrum have gone, uncounted
manuscripts useless to us and lost to
the world because we could not read
them. Write legibly plainly make
each word so that it is easily read.
In our paper Of last week we were
obliged to omit whole sentences OF
an article because some words were
illegible.
Selina's Escape.