The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1897-07-18
copyright. 1871

ICopyright 1871
Has il been your misfortune 10 re-
ceive a letter written in what is known
as the new handwriting? The afore-
said new Handwriting is upright in
outline and curious in shading, and one
must be educated up to reading it,
have been told by people who admire
it, although they are not familiar with
it. that the Egyptian hieroglyphics are
legible compared to it. As nation we
are not good writers. The English
write a clear, legible hand. the French
singularly neat. small hand. While
they invariably use good stationery
Since don't read German can't crit
icise the handwriting OF the emperor or
of Bismarck, but / do know that as a
nation we are the most variable in our
handwriting of any in existence. and l
think I've found out the reason for it,
At the time when the present gener-
ation-that is, our sweet selves-were
going to school we began TO write our
notices in a round copy book hand. with
beautiful shadings. tall rs and short
is, is properly dotted and VS. that
didn't have curled tails like as.
Midway in the search for this we
were stopped. We began To write by
order OF the teacher in charge. II at
first you don't succeed. try try again
in the angular English hand. for that
had become fashionable. Now. no hu-
man being, especially at the mature
age OF Is. could, after several years Of
application at round o's. suddenly
make them sharp o's. She could not
in a moment drag down from their
height all her Is. leave her is uncross-
ed and forget shading altogether. The
result was a hybrid handwriting that
Is now general in this country We De-
lieved that there was some indivlduan-
ty in a scrawl. in queerly formed let
tiers and in a mixture of roundness and
sharpness. but this new upright hand
writing is going TO drive more children
TO prefer ignorance to knowledge and
more teachers to matrimony than any
thing that has ever happened before.
1t was Napoleon Bonaparte who said:
s'No man dealing with a press of bust
ness can be expected 10 write a leglbie
hand All he can do is to set down dots
and leave it to others to declpher
them" | have always been an admirer
of Napoleon. but now l feel that he
was more human than he has ever
been credited with being. Personally l
have a kindly feeling toward the peo-
ple who write indistinctlv. but there
IS one thing that ! will not and cannot
forgive and ! think that did more to
make me discover that Ellen Terry was
not my ideal Marguerite than anything
else Miss Terry commits the awful
crime of writing on both sides OF the
thinnest of paper with the blacklist Of
Ink and the heaviest of quilts The re-
suit is mysterious beyond telling. You
may count yourself as wonderfully
lucky if among the black and white
lines and crosses you find her name
and your own. Mrs Langtry writes Il
big, clear hand. and she has cheerful
way of meandering all over a heavy
page Of paper exactly as if she were
putting out her firm, white. well shaped
hand to greet you. Lillian Russell
writes 4 rather round. large hand. using
the blacklist of ink on pale blue paper.
which has her monogram on II in
white Henry Irving writes a curious
" old fashioned hand. indistinct and
requiring little clew to start with
bet cnoe you've discovered what he's
writ ~ about all the mystery is solved
a small. neat distinct hand is that Of
Wilson Barrett. his writing being not
unlike that Ct f. II. Sothern. whose
letters always remind you of the per
fecticn with which his coat fits.
Jeanette Glider, the best woman
critic in this country. expresses herself
in lesihle writing that is a joy to read
] possess a hi. Of d manuscript of Bret
Harte. The writing is fine. distinct.
fer,ir:re. and the ink is violet. Yvette
GuilAert writes a distinctly delicate
hand and her own bright face looks
out from every enc OF her correspond
ence cards.
Nost of the foreign actors and sing
ers write this same small. distinct
hand - women inclining TO larger
letters than the men. Many of the
women r-ho write to get jam for their
bread and butter do ii in an indistinet
and reckless way. II would seem rs If
they remembered that ink was cheap
and that. after all, what they wrote
was usually put in print before the
public saw il. About my own hand
writing I am a hi; sensitive. Severe
critics who twit ne because of my age
and nly many intirmities. have called
il characteristic. Ny own family has
limited positively but kindly and with
all love and reverence. that ii must
have been a very bad character of
which II was typical. sort Of combi-
nation Of LucreZia Borgia. Eve. Cath
crime de Medici. the woman who in
vented starch and the young woman
who devoted her life to swallowing pins
and in whose cold corpse several mil
lions of them were found This. how
ever. is blasphemy. But l. like other
great people. as Mr.. George Moore so
fiuently says, find that | am not ap-
preciated as l should be in my own
family.
The cry for long time has been that
woman was taking the bread out of
mans mouth by assuming his occupa-
tions. Ii was said that she could write
as well a. or better than he did. that
as politician she was far above him.
that as a financier she would have set
tied this tariff business long ago and
that if ever she got hold Of the money
in the treasury she would disseminate
II in way that would please al. the
United States. But after a great deal
of thinking tand when a woman thinks
TInAHT 0IEf