The Jasper weekly courier. [volume] (Jasper, Ind.) 1858-1922, 1908-11-13
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. sssss',a;',sassns
FeatS of PenmanShip
4 Kings Biogra ply on a Grain
of Wheat
.,D.says@

The feat OF writing the Lords
Prayer upon a space which a six
pence would cover is SO familiar as TO
cease 10 be wonderful; but one can
not resist a tribute OF genuine aston
lshment TO man who can write the
whole OF our national anthem along
The thin edge of an ordinary visiting
card. and who has actually penned BIZ
ographies of King Edward and several
members Of his family upon a tiny
grain OF wheat. Such a microscopic
'calligraphist" is NJ. j. Softer, French
gentleman, who, we should say, could
safely challenge the world TO 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 presentment Of the Car.
Tor instance, is not only clever like
ness. but every stroke in 1t is a part
Of the continuous life OF the Russian
Emperor, in letters so minute that TO
he unaidcd eve they seem part OF an
ordinary pen line, while the artist is
at 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
time when this art of minute penman-
ship has not exercised its Vaccinations.
In Cicero's time about 1000 years ago.
the whole Of Homer's "1liad" was COP
led so microscopically that IL was
placed in nut shell, and a few CEN
iurys later an artist wrote a short
poem and enclosed IL in hollow grain
OF corn, while still another penman in
these long-gone days actually wrote
verse OF Homer on a grain OF millet.
Pedotti. a fourteenth-century Ital-
an, performed the most astounding
teats with his pen. He wrote a poem
or 100 lines on 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;
and 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 to Urban vi. 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 10000 |
words in the form of a consecutive
history, and exclaimed. as well as he
might. why, this is nothing less than
4 miracle"
But Italy has no monopoly of these
minute calligraphists Many centurys
ago. Peter Bales. an English Chancery
clerk, we learn from the Harleian
transcribed the whole of
he Bible in such small compass that
ne was able 10 inclose II in a walnut
The nut holdeth the book" we are
old: there are as many leaves in
his little book as the great Bible. and
he had written as much in one of his
little leaves as a great leaf of the BIZ
lie And not to be outdone by Peter
Bales. another Englishman. OF the
eventeenth century. one Henry Ma
on. copied the whole OF Paradise
.ost' and enclosed his manuscript In
hens egg
As we have seen, NJ. Softer is bv no
means the first pen artist who has
made portrait the medium OF a long
arrative AT the British Museum
mere Is 10 be seen an excellent like
ess or Queen Anne. little larger than
alf a sheet Of note paper, every deli
ate line Of which is made up Of words
nd sentences, the entire narrative
eing sufficient to fill a small volume:
nd at 81. Johns College. Oxford.
here is a head Of the martyred King
harles l., which. although to all ap-
earance a delicate engraving. is sim
lrly composed. With the help Of a
horoscope you can read in the lines
the face and the ruff the whole of
1e Psalms. the Lords Prayer and the
reed.