Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1904-10-30
DECLINE OF LETTER WRITING

| Inc ART OF leLLeT-WTlllHS, llkc tndt
of reading aloud, seems to have long
ago gone down into the mysterious
recesses of the past There are sew.
eral ways in which it might be ac-
counted for, though none seems great
enough to prove that this is an art
that should be lost. The newspaper
has made the average personal letter
practically useless as news medium.
the next great aids are the telegraph
and telephone. These have proved
quicker disseminators of news, so the
letter has become merely purveyor
: of personal gossip and ideas.
Not only are letters less newsy now
than long ago, but they lack the nea..
ness and care that were always hall
marks of the epistles of the best write
ers in other days.
A day or so ago the Spinster came
in on the car on which a postman soon
clambered with his mail pouch. This
trusty employe Of Uncle Sam proceed
ed to sort out the mail as he rode up
town, and as he spread the letters out
on the seat beside him the Spinster
marveled to see how many were ad-
dressed with a pencil and wondered
if the inside did not bear the same
helter-skelter kind of penmanship
and untidy smears. And yet it was
from the post boxes in a nice resi-
dence part of the city that he had col
lected his letters.
Pen and ink are not very expensive
commodities, modern civilization has
placed them within easy reach OF
ninety-nine out of a hundred persons
in this country and yet to judge by
much of the mail that finds its way in
to the average postman's bag one
would be led to believe that they were
luxuries permitted only to men and
women of means.
Pleasures Of Letter Writing.
AS an art letter writing should b.
few of the letters written nowadays
will ever fall under other eyeR, than
those for whom they were originally
intended despite the craze for publish
ing old letters. But it is such an i'm
mense satisfaction to the one wha
writes to know that she has used cor
rect paper and envelopes, that her pen
was good and her ink black and that
she wrote her best and signed her
name legibly. When all these things
are done her espistle will bear to her
friend the marks of thoughtfulness as
we'll as love.
A book much in vogue long ago III
the Spinster's salad days was "The
Wide, Wide World" and girls VIII J
read it were taught by their elders
t, note how the heroine selected her
sealing wax and stationery with so
much care that she was held up as 4
model to Indifferent and untidy girls
More young people have desks and
stationery of their own now than in
those days, but are not so careful IN
their uses of these. Too much famil-
isrity with the necessary writing tools
and too little necessity for letters as
news medium have caused the art to
lose it splace among those that belong
to the sentlewOman
The best literature of century o"
so ago was found in the letters OF
half dozen people. yet the sedate Jr
MUS would shudder in his grave
clothes today to see some of the hastl-
l. penned missives that do duty as
letters.
Craze for Publishing Letters.
True, if one happens to be great
there is danger of having ones let
ters collected by mercenary and un-
feeling relatives or publishers, and the
very thoughts of ones heart given tho
gaping public to read and analyze as
Ii; chooses. It was son of the Brown
ln0S WHO HlSt utStNl dlSN tAN NeoN>NN
of the dead and gave to the world the
beautiful love story of his parents
written when they had meant no one
hut themselves to see or know. Others
have followed in his footsteps
until every trunk or garret or old desk
has been made to yield up its hoard OF
treasures to supply the avaracious
needs of others.
This however, need not deter the
writer from doing her best when she
takes her pen in hand for nowadays
women have grown discreet and 90
lnot pour out their heart-throbs in INK
lat the rate that those did in the more
sentimental age. and, then. too. these
Iof today invariably burn up most o.
their letters as fast as they get them-