The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1898-03-04
was an indistingutshable hieroglyphic.

was an indistinguishabfe hieroglyphic.
Byron and Dean Stanley wrote afro
cious fists and it is said that Sgd
ney Smiths was no better, although
he used to chaff Jeffrey badly He used
to say that he read Jeffrey from left 10
right, and his wife from right to left,
but neither could make out a syllable
Jules Janin would rather re-write than
attempt to read over again what he
had written, and Montaigne could
never read what he had written. The
acute thinker mended matters by en-
ploying a secretary-whose writing was
absolutely undecipherable Balzac was
as big sinner, and Dickens microsco-
pic characters, written on blue paper
with blue ink, appalled, many seasoned
compositors. A terrible hand had
Henry Ward Beecher: his daughter
once declared that she had three guild
ing rules in copying tiff a letter was
dotted 1t was not an 81" and if it was
crossed it was not st." and a word
with capital letter did not begin e.
sentence. Jacob Bryan said of Arch
deacon CoXe's- caligraphy that it could
neither be called a hand nor a fist,
! but foot, and that club one. His
hleroglyphicS formed clumsy, tangled
black skein that ran across the paper
in knots, which it was impossible 20
unite into meaning. Lord Eldon used
to tell of John Bell, great ChanctIy
luminary of his time that he had tlree
different methods of putting his wisdom
on paper-one ineligible 10 himself
only, another which his clerk could
read and he could not. and the third
which neither he nor his clerk nor any
one else could read. The funny letter
of Il. b. Aldrich TO Professor Morse
stands alongside of Tom Hoods face
tious reply to Lady Georgina Fuller
toms as protest against learned il!egi-
bility. Aldrich asserted that he could
decipner nothing in the professors mis-
siye but the date, which he knew. and
the signature, which he guessed At
The story of the Duke of Wellington
writing to Bishop Bloomfield, when he
had received letter from J. c. Loudon,
the eminent landscape designer, ask
ing 10 see the Waterloo beeches q,
Strathfieldsaye, is a chestnut, but it
makes US laugh although, perhaps. we
ought Lot) to picture the CONSERVATION
of the Bishop (and through him the
shock to the whole Episcopal Bench)
on receiving permission to view the
Dukes Waterloo breeches. Also a elias
sic is the tale of Macready's admission
ticket being solemnly made up by the
apoth acary into a cough mixture, TO
be taken three times a day" The name
| of Horace Greeley has, in this connec
ton TO be mentioned with chastened
respect. He. undoubtedly, was the
great master of illegibility. It was OF
/ him the ccmpositor averred that if Bel
! shazzar had seen his handwriting on
the wall, he would have had cause to
/ be terrified. A common story attribut-
| ed to Greeley, belongs, however, to one
! Brooks, some time President of the
New York Central Railroad. II is best
in all things to be just. And Greeley
can well spare ii. 1t was Brooks notice
! to quit that a tenant used for two years
/ as a railway pass. Greeley wrote to
/ some pressmen: with a weight OF
years. I feel obliged to decline any in
Vitation that takes me a days journey
from home" and this is all they could
make Of it: IF cells are blighted, dig
/ them eSlly. Any insinuation that brick
/ ovens are dangerous to hams gives ne
/ the horrors" This is the way the mod
ems have juggled with the pen, so can
/ we won)er that its time of usefulness
is well-nigh spent?-London Globe.