The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1904-05-22

II
ward University, which includes
the Agassz University, Peabody.
I4IISII Germanic Semitic and Fogg Art
- Museum, the library and the ar
chitectural building, has more than a scien-
titic side. To the student ii affords almost
unequaled opportunities for research work,
but to the average visitor who passes
through the innumerable corridors it brings
recognition of the truth of the old adage
that there is nothing new under the sun.
The Jokes with which them steers
drew Scion Chase over the hills of Maine,
the COX harness still employed in the tar
heel region of North Carolina the Red
river of the North, in Minnesota and Win
nipeg. are little different from those pic
tured Assyrian pottery and Egyptian
stone. The pillow the Tagalog uses to-day
in the distant Philippines can hardly be
distinguished from that with which Jewish
slaves of the pre-Mosaic period cultivated
the alluvial fields of the Nile. But most
extraordinary of all is the kinship of the
present with the ancient past in the pres
crvation of language by means of written
symbols
The little tot who, with dots and straight
lines, draws picture story on a slate uses
the same method that Aztec and Hittite
alike employed. The most modern face Of
type is merely a revival, or, rather. a sur
vival, of the handwriting of medieval days,
as may be seen by an examination of the
ancient manuscripts in the library. And
this handwriting, in turn, can be traced
back. century by century, 20 the hero
glyphics of the earliest times.
| Fads in writing may come and go, but its
essentials do not change. In the Art Mu-
scum and the library one may see the inf1u-
ence of the renaissance on even such a
| homely matter this 1.-The fine Italian
hand of metaphor had very real founda-
ton in fact; it was the art and social lead
| ers from the south of Europe who produced
what might be called euphemism in hand
| writing as we'll as in speech. While the
quirks. the quirls and graces have dropped
| from everyday conversation they have sur
vived more or less in chirography.
A study of the old manuscripts in the Ii
brary shows this plainly. Handwriting
seems to have been copied from one person
to another, and since the days when the no
| bility and the elite wrote with exag-
gerated slant this style of forming letters
has fingered among penmen, except when
they were under stress either of time or
volume of work. Then the tendency is TO
revert to the primary or more natural con-
dition of straight up-and-down and straight
Northumberland strokes. AS studies
ancient fragments and quaint parchments
it surprise that the so-called
vertical handwriting now so generally
| taught in American schools, itself merely
a revival of the popular and familiar round
| ic
| something new but something very old.
While experts, on the whole, favor the
natural hand, as vertical writing should be
called, and while it is coming into more
common use every day, one meets strange
cases of misunderstanding regarding it. II
has been suggested that 1t promotes decep'
ton and protects the forger, yet expert
students of manuscripts will tell you that
the simpler and palmer chirography is the
more difficult it is to initiate exactly. Or
this point DR.. Persifor Frazer, of the
| Franklin Institute in Philadelphia, who is
the author of "Bibliotics, or the Study OF
| Documents, Determination of the individual
| Character of Handwriting and Detection
of Fraud and Forgery" says: 1.-The rela
| ton OF any system of writing to the preva
lence of forgery is, in my opinion, to be
| represented by zero. Even typewriting
which seems to offer the forger the great
est opportunities, is likely to prove to hin
a snare. Systems of penmanship can have
no effect on forgery through facilitating
or rendering more difficult the imitation Of
| another's hand. There are so many charac
teristics in every handwriting unknown anC
invisible to the possessor, that the shape oil
| appearance of the writing is of the leas
Importance in seeking the author
Curiously enough, opposition to advanc,
| in educational matters comes, as rule, no
from educators. but from the laymen who
under our American system of management
have ultimate control. 1t is safe TO sa!
that most OF the opposition in such matter:
as that of vertical writing comes from these
outsiders. They suppose it to be un
justiti3ble innovation, and most of then
would be nightly surprised to find that il
the handwriting of all times and by al
people the vertical has prevailed. From tn
time when writing was executed with chise
and mallet the characters Lave beer
straight up and down. When great As
syrian king of a00 B. c. wished to preserv
to posterity the record of his achievement
which endures to this day, in a strict.
vertical hand Ii is quite plain that
vertical writing was fad 1000 years ago /
is too old to be one now; the slant hand i
the fad, rather, for il can trace its an
cestry back only about three centuries.
| The evolution of the American school
| boys vertical writing Is interesting.
was not until the early days of the Chris
tian that writings with the reed pei
and stilus became at all common and thel
! the languages chiefly employing il wer
| Greek and Latin. ManuscTir s preserve,
from that time record IL birth OF tn
natural hand. The 'CodeS AleXandrinus
of the fifth century is an example o
strictly vertical lettering and. indeed yer
ticality prevailed until the end of the sew
enth century, when a decay set in.
The round, broad letters then began [
| give way to narrow and oval ones and il
the eighth century a distinct slant to tn
right appeared. Following the laws o
evolution, which seem TO show that
takes a handwriting about 500 years to de
velop, flourish and decay, chirography be
came more and more illegible during IN
ninth century; but in the tenth the monas
| teries, which were the seats OF learning
| came to the rescue. There was an imme
date resumption Of the former round
! vertical script and so complete was tn