The Jasper weekly courier. [volume] (Jasper, Ind.) 1858-1922, 1908-10-30
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Feats of Penmanship
4 Kings Biogra ply on Grain
OF Wheat


: : :
The feat OF writing the Lords
Prayer upon space which a six
pence would cover is so familiar as to
cease TO be wonderful: but one can
lot resist a tribute of genuine aston
lshment 10 a man who can write the
whole OF our national anthem along
he thin edge Of an ordinary visiting
card and who has actually penned BIZ
)graphies OF King Edward and several
members Of his family upon a tiny
grain OF wheat Such a microscopic
'callicraphist" is NJ j. Softer. French
gentleman. who. we should say. could
safely challenge the world 10 rivalry
n his own field OF penmanship.
Perhaps more wonderful still are
he portraits OF celebrities which NJ.
Sofer produces out OF their biog
raphies. His presentmcnt OF the Car.
for instance. is not only a clever like
ness. but every stroke In II is a part
II the continuous life Of the Russian
Emperor. in letters so minute that 10
he unaidcd eve they seem part OF an
ordinary pen line. while the artist is
II present engaged on a similar pic
ure OF King Edward which will be
made up Of his biography. containing
$4,000 letters.
There has probably never been a
time when this art OF minute penman-
ship has not exercised its fascinat ions.
In Ciccros time about 2.00O years ago.
The whole of HOmer's "Iliad" was cop
led so microscopically that ii was
placed in a nut shell. and a few cen
"a O. - u
poem and enclosed IL in a hollow grain
II corn. while still another penman in
these lOng-Cone DAYS actually wrote
a verse of Homer on a grain Of millet.
Pedotti, a fourteenth century Ital-
an, performed the most astounding
feats with his pen. He wrote poem
of 100 lines on a space no larger than
his little finger nail; made an elabo-
rate landscape sketch. including
shepherd and a drove Of sheep. which
a grain Of corn completely covered:
nd penned a long treatise on poetry
in such minute letters that the manu-
script had the appearance of a close
series OF perfectly straight lines:
while he dedicated 10 Urban vi. a his
tory OF the Papacy. which took the
form Of an excellent likeness OF the
Pope in whose honor IL was written.
Urban was incredulous when he was
assured by the artist that the portrait
was composed of more than u. 600
words in the form OF a consecutive
history. and exclaimed as we'll as he
might. why, this is nothing less than
a miracle"
But Italy has no monopoly Of these
minute calligraphists Many centurys
ago Peter Bales. an English Chancery
clerk. we learn from the Harleian
manuscripts. transcribed the whole Of
the Bible in such small compass that
he was able 10 inclOse IL in a walnut
THE nut holdeth the book" we are
told there are as many leaves in
his little book as the great Bible and
he had written as much i'm one Of his
little leaves as a great leaf Of the BIZ
BILE And. not 10 be outdone by Peter
Bales. another Englishman. OF the
seventeenth century. one Henry Ma
son. copied the whole Of Paradise
Lost" and enclosed his manuscript in
a hens egg
As we have seen, " Softer IS by no
means the first pen artist who has
made a portrait the medium OF long
narrative. At the British Museum
there is TO he seen an excellent like
ness Of Queen Anne little larger than
half a sheet ~ note paper. every deli
cate line Of which is made up Of words
and sentences, the entire narrative
being sufficient 10 fill small volume:
and at St Johns College. Oxford.
there is head Of the martyred King
Charles l.. which, although to all ap-
pearance delicate engraving. is sim.
larry composed With the help OF a
microscope YOU can read in the lines
Of the face and the run the whole Of
the Psalms, the Lords Prayer and the
Craad