The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1897-07-25

Now York. July 1I.-Has it been your
,,,isfortrne to receive a letter written il
,,,ba+ is known as the new handwritf
ine2', The aforesaid new handwriting il
upright in outline and curious in shadingH
and one must be educated up to reading
II, | have been told by people who ad
miro il. although they are not familiar
with it. that the Egyptian heiroglyphics
are legible compared with It, AS a ma
ton we are not good writers. Ihe Eng
dish write clear legible hand,the FRENCH
n singularly neat, small hand, Whlle they
invariably use good stationery. Since
don't read German | can't crinclse the
handwriting of the emperor or or Dis
marck, but | do know that as nation
we are the most variable in our hand
writing Of any in existence, ana thihh
I've found out the reason for II.
At the time when the present genera /
tion--that is. our sweet selves-were goo
ing to school we began to write our mott
toes in a round copy book hand, wlthI
beautiful standings, tall Is and shortl
is. is properly dotted and VS. that didn't
have curled tails like as.
Midway in the search for this we We're
stopped We began to write by order OF
the teacher in charge. If at first you
don't succeed. try, try again, III the
angular English hand, for that had be-
come fashionable Now, no human being
especially at the mature age of 13, could,
after several years of application at
round o's, suddenly make them sharp o's,
She could not in moment drag down
from their heights all her Is, leave her rs
increased and forget shading altogether.
The result was a hybrid handwriting that
is now general in this country. We be-
lieyed that there was some individuality
in q scrawl ia queerly formed letters and
in mixture of roundness and sharp
ness. but this new upright handwriting
is going to drive more children to prefer
ignorance to knowledge and more teach
ers to matrimony than anything that
has ever happened before.
1t was Napoleon Bonaparte who said,
''No man dealing with a press of BUSH
ness can be expected to write leglbie
hand. All he can do is to set down dots
and leave it to others to decipher them. z
/ have always been an admirer of Napo-
leon. but now | feel that he was more
human that he has ever been credited
with being. Personally, i have a kindly
feeling toward the people who write in
distinctly, but there is one thing that L
will not and cannot forgive, and l think
that did more to make me discover that
Ellen Terry was not my ideal Mar
guerite 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 result is mysterious beyond
telling You may count yourself as Won
derfully lucky if among the black and
white lines and crosses you find her name
and your own. Mrs. Langtry writes a
big. clear hand, and she has a cheerful
way of meandering all over heavy
page of paper exactly as if she were
putting out her firm, white, well-shaped
hand to greet you. Lillian Russell writes
rather round, large hand, using the
blacklist Of ink on pale blue paper which
has her monogram ON it in white. Henry
Irving writes curiously old-fashioned
hand, indistinct and requiring a little clew
to start with, but once you've discovered
what he's writing about all the mystery
is solved A small, neat. distinct hand is
that Of Wilson Barrett, his writing being
not unlike that OF e. Fl. Sothern, whose
letters always remind You Of the perfec-
ti0n with which his coat fits. 49,
Jeanette Glider the pest woman critic
il; this country. expresses herself in legi-
BILE writing that is a joy to read.
possess bit Of a manuscript of Bret
Harte. The writing is fine, distinct,
feminine, and the ink is violet. Yvette
Guilbert writes distinctly delicate hand,
and her own bright face looks out from
every one of her correspondence cards.
Most of the foreign actors and singers
write this same small, distinct hand, the
women inclining to larger letters than
the men. Many of the women who write
to get the jam for their bread and but
ter do it in a indistinct and reckless way
1t would seem as if they remembered
that ink was cheap and that, after all,
what they wrote was usually put in print
before the public saw it. About my own
handwriting am bit sensitive. Severe
critics. who twit me because of my age
and my many infrmities, have called 1t
characteristic. My own family has
limited 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 Lucre-
tia Borgia, Eve Catharine de Medici, the
woman who invented starch and the
young woman who devoted her life tt
swallowing pins and in whose cold
corps several millions of them were
found. This, however, is blasphemy. Bli1
/, like other great people, as Mr.. George
Moore so fiuently says, find that / am not
appreciated as l should be in my own
family.
The cry for long time has beer
that woman was taking the bread out OF
mans mouth by assuming his occupa
tions. 1t was said that she could write
as well or better than he did, that as 8
politician she was far above him, thai
as a financier she would have settled this
tariff business long ago and that if ever
she got hold Of the money in the treasury
she would disseminate it in a way thai
would please all the United States. But
after a great deal Of thinking land wheI
woman thinks hard it either results in
something or she thinks the curl out OF
her hair) she has come to the conclusion
that there is new occupation open te
man. 1t is that of lady's maid. The
reason Of it's existence is what every
knowing person calls the shirt habit Il
had its birth in the shirt waist. But
every fashionable girl understands thai
the masculine shirt, pure and simple
has become necessity in the wardrobe
of every woman who wears a cloth skir1