Delaware gazette and state journal., 1897-07-22
new STYLE OF HANDWRITING
Is Curious in Shading and Up
right In Outline. M
MUST BE- EDUCATED TO READ IT
Less Legible Than Egyptian Hi
eroglyphics.

Bab Says That, as a Nation. We Are tho
Most Variable in Our Pennmauship of
Any In Existence, and That She Thinss
She Has Found Ont the Reason for 1t.
Special Correspondence of Gazette and Journal
New York, July 16. Has it been
your misfortune to receive a letter
written in what is known as the new
handwritingf" The aforesaid new
handwriting is upright in outline and
curious in shading, and une must be
educated up to reading IT. have been
told by people who admire it, although
they are not familiar with ii, that ths
Egyptian hieroglyphics ure legible COM
pared to it, As a nation We are not
good writers. The English write
clear, legihle hand, the French singu-
larly neat, small hanu, while they in
variably use good stationery. Since !
don't read German | can't criticise the
handwriting Of the emperor or of Bis
marck, but do know that aa nation
we are the most variable in our nand-
writing of any in existence, ana [ think
I've found out the reason for it.
AT the time when the present gener.
ation-that is, our sweet Heves--were
going to school we began to write our
notices in round copy book band,
with beautiful shadings, tall ls and
short t's, i's properly dotted and US
that didn't have curied tails like q's
Midway 10 the search for this we
were stopped. We began to write by
order of the teacher in charge, "If at
first you don't succsed, try, try again."
In tue angular English hand, for that
had become fashionable. Now, no
human being. especially at the mature
age of 13, could, after several years OF
application at round o's. suddenly make
thom sharp o'a. She could not 10
moment drag down from their height
all her lis. leaving her t's uncrossed
and forget shading altogether. The re-
suit was a hybrid handwriting that is
now general in this country. We be-
lieved that there was SONS individu-
ality in scrawl. in queerly formed leJ-
ters and in a mixture of roununess and
sharpness but this now 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 Bonsparte who said :
No man dealing with press OF bust
ness can be expected to write legible
hand. All he can do ie to set duwn
dots and leave it to others to decipher
them" have always been an ad-
mirer of Napoleon, but now feel that
he was more human than he has ever
been credited with being. Personally
have kindly feeling toward the people
who write indistinctly, but there is ono
thing that will not and cannot for
give, 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 blackest of
ink and the heaviest of quills The re.
suit is mysterious beyond telling. You
may count yourself as wonderfully lucky
IL among the black and white lines and
CROSSES you find her name and your
own. Mrs. Langtry writes big, clear
hand, and she has a cheerful way of
meandering all over heavy page of
paper exactly as IL she were putting
out her firm, white, ell.shaped hand
to greet you. Lillian Russell writes a
rather round, largo hand,, using the
blackest of ink on pale blue paper,
which has her monogram on it in
white. Henry Irving writes curiously
old fashioned hand, indistinct and re-
euiring little clue to start With, but
once you've discovered what he's
writing about all the mystery ia solved.
A small, neat, distinct hand is that of
Wilson Barrett, his writing being not
unlike that of Z. II. Sothern, whose
letters always remind you of the per-
lection with which his coat fts.
Jeanette Glider, the bsst woman
critic in this country, expresses herself
in lvgible writing that is Joy to read.
possess bit OF manuscript OF Bret
Harte. The writing is fine, distinct,
feminine, and the ink is violet. Yvette
Guilbert writes a distinctly delicate
hand. and her own bright face looks
out from every one OF her correspond
ence cards.
Most of the foreign actors and singers
write this same small, distinct hand,
the women inGlining to larger letters
than the men. Many of the women
who writn to get jam for their bread
and butter do it in an indIstinct and
reckless way. 1t would seem as il they
remembered that ink was cheap and
that. after all, what they wrote vas
usually put in print before the public
saw it. About my own handwriting i
am bit sensitive. Severe critics, who
twit me because of my age and my
many infirmities, have called it charac-
teristic. My own family has hinted
positively, but kindly and with all love
and reverence, that it must have been
a very bad character OF which it was
typical. a sort of combination OF
Lucrezia Borgia, Eve, Catherine !. do
Medici, the woman who invented starch
and the young woman who devoted her
life to swallowing pins and in whose
cold corpse several millions of them
we're found. This however. is bias
phemy. But /. like other great people.
as Mr. George Moore SO fuently says,
fnd that l am not appreciated as
should he in my own family.
The cry for long time has been that
woman was taking the bread out of
mans mouth by assuming his occu-
pations. II was said that she could
write as well as or better than he did,
that as politician she was far above
him. that as a hnancier she would
have settled this tariff business long
ago and that il ever she got hold of the
money in the treasury she would dis
seminate it in a way that would please
all the United States. But after
great deal of thinking tand when
woman thinks bard it either results in
something or she thinks the curl out
of her hair she has come TO the con-
clusion that there is new occupation
open to man. 1t is that of lady's maid.
The reason of its existence is what
every knowing person calls the shirt
habit. 1t had its birth in the shirt
waist. But every fashionable girl