The San Francisco call., 1909-05-08

NeneNd, u, III Httle otu los
cabin near the shore of Lake
Erie, future president, men
who later We're ornaments to the
judiciary. embryo senators and con
gressmen, men who amassed millions
in trade and commerce. sat ut rude
tables in the thirties and forties of
the last century and learned to write.
Some of them came from Europe.
some from Canada, from wherever the
English language was written or
spoken, to be taught by Platt r.. Spen
Ger the art Of chirography.
The people of Geneva and Ashtabula
county said Spencer was queer" In
those days, and to those primitive
minds. a great ability to work with the
munity. Brain workers We're drags
and drones So little sympathy went
out to Spencer in his efforts to popa-
larize the system of handwriting that
he gave to the world and that hrs
since been universally recognized as
the standard for all 10 follow.
Spencer was queer 1t was a
never ceasing source of wonder that
students travelled from all the parts of
America and even from across the
seas to sit in his cabin for few
weeks and make marks on paper under
his direction. That the twists and
turns of the quill in his facile hand be-
gan an epoch in penmanship that has
not been checked off mattered nothing.
He was not newer OF wood. neither
did he toll in the fields.
IT was only few years go that
the Spencer seminary was torn down
to make room for an onion patch. The
building was of logs, chinked with
clay. There the man whose name Is
known by every school child in the
country originated, worked to perfec-
tion and taught the greatest system of
penmanship ever introduced, Spencerian
penmanship, a synonym of ali that is
correct and artistic in handwriting.
At Spencer's death the cabin passed
otIt of the family. 1t was deserted for
years except for its use by stray
tramps and wanderers. Its roof rotted
and gave way. The doors and win
dows We're gone. A farmer needed the
space it occupied for an onion bed and
the walls were cut up for firewood.
Nothing remains in Geneva that testi-
fies to Spencers life but the little head
stone in the burial ground. His monu-
ment is in the millions Of people who
from their earliest school days were
taught the "Spencerian system as the
most beautiful and at the same time the
most practical method OF joining writ
ten letters into words.
All that he did Spencer did without
instruction. He was his own master.
When he was IL he had never even
possessed a piece of writing paper.
Then he saved penny and sent 20
miles for his first sheet 1t reached
him at night when he was asleep.
When he awoke he could not call a
single written character to mind But
the next day his mind worked rapidly.
Paper being a luxury, he practiced on
birch bark. on the sand, in the snow.
Then he had the opportunity to attend
school in Conneaut for a few weeks.
BY that time he was able to instruct
his fellow pupils in penmanship. From
that date began his career as a teacher.
AS his fame spread his cabin became
a Mecca for students of chirography.
President Garfield sat on a rough bench
and learned the rudiments of .ritin'.
Mr. Garfield. In fact. was one of his ear
liest pupils. With a sharp knife
Spencer made all the quills used In his
school because none could make them
as well as he.
Teaching in any of It's phases. how
ever. was a precarious method of earn
ing ones liveIihoo6~in those days Meat
and bread in the Spencer household.
were oftsn scarce in the early years
But the man was queer, as his neigh
bors said. and so he persevered
He made copy books that were used