The San Francisco call., 1909-05-08

compelled to abandon the theories on
which they were instructed and, not
being familiar with the Spencer system,
work out style for themselves.
Cleveland. the big city for Spencer
and the Geneva people. used the Spen-
cerian copy books until the vertical
craze struck the land Speneerian was
discarded and vertical forms took its
place. The children in the schools
bought the newly prescribed vertical
copy books and wrote up and down.
But it developed that by the time the
children had passed the elementary
grades they had departed from the YER
tical and had acquired by themselves OF
necessity a slanting hand for which
they had no teaching
And this was directly in line with
the theories Spencer worked out when
he unconsciously popularized his style
of writing. He argued: We read from
left to right, so words must be writ
ten in that order. To be a good pen
man one must follow the natural phys
ical inclination The movement of the
hand is toward the right and there is
a normal tendency TO form the letters
in that direction. Movement aIonel
however, will not create the muscular
habit requisite for good penmanship.
The hand is trained by definite, con-
tinued movements toward a cleverIy
more clearly attainab1e. make il logical
and in the line OF natural inclination.
No one can attain a penman's skill i'm
forms that must be laboriously drawn
So he drew his letters with a move
ment that was easy and natural and
wholly in line with the unconscious
action of the hand. Therein Law his
success. 1t was what he sought to
make clear TO his students in the log
cabin and to the students of his copy
all over the land. BE natural Do not
strain the hand by attempting TO go
contrary TO its unguided movement
Following his Ideals. Spencer re-
duced writing to a fine art. He be-
lieved ardently in one style for the
English speaking world. He main
tanned that his style, the slanting
style, could be written more RAPIDLY.
more legibly and with less effort than
the vertical. Recent developments in
the schools of the country seem TO
show that educators generally agree
with him.
Nothing in penmanship was too Diff
ficult for Spencer to attempt. His fn-
gers were piiable as the professional
pianists. On occasions when he de-
sired to display his skill he would
make a rice straw into a pen Dip
ping it into his blackberry ink, he
would write with the straw as beautf-
1uily DIS MS PuPiAS write Win
his best quills. The ordinary penman
would crush the straw between his
fingers in composing the first letter
During the last few years OF his life
Spencer established a number of busi-
ness colleges. There he introduced
his system of penmanship and hun
dreds of educational institutions are
standing today a mopument to his de-
votion TO his art
AS every business and professional
man knows Spencerianism did not die
with its author. Plat r. Spencer. un-
dertook TO teach a few, comparative
~, how to write "sensibly and cor
rectly." 1t Is true that his teachings
reached a wide held-but his five sons
all OF whom have emuIated the ex-
ample OF their father by devoting their
lives to obstruction in the art Of writ
ing. have made the Spencerian System
known wherever pens are dipped into
ink.
Spencer wrote better than he knew.
for Spencerian has become synonymous
with writing. The modernized Spen-
cerian system Is the basis OF writing
in all English speaking countries and
It's easy, graceful curves and slants are
doing service in almost every written
language.
Not long ago the sons Of Platt r.
Spencer saw the necessity Of modern
izing the forms made so familiar by
their father but the best they could
do was to eliminate the shadings and
ornamental hourishes that gave many
pupils hatred for 'riting.