Evening capital and Maryland gazette., 1912-12-03
WHAT AUTOGRAPHS TELL.

ers of the Declaration Of Independence.
not merely offers the public curiosity
ht 10 place in some museum beside the
swords and muskets Of Revolutionary
battles.
Handwriting tells its own story.
These nfty-six letters will reveal men
tai habits that are as outgrown as the
wigs and knee-breeches worn by the
men who made the autographs.
A collection of handwriting Of that
date is almost always characterized by
a certain neat, painstaking regularity.
At some time in hisscareer the penman
has given the same kind Of thought ts
the form of individual letters as the
modern college student gives TO the
drop kick and the spitball.
Up to comparatively recent years
this habit Of neat handwriting was
general. The older people'of the pres
ent generation usually retain it. While
absolutely devoid Of flourish, their let
ters show a firm muscular control. q
conscientious feeling about penman
ship. They are as ashamed of scraw
y letter as they would be of an IN
swept parlor.
Specialists in nervous diseases often
used to consider handwriting as an ele-
ment in diagnosing certais maladies.
1t was a sensitive indication Of loss of
fnuacYlar cOordin afion
Arguing on this basis. the modern
specialist would have to decide that
an entire college body or thh middies
needed to be treated for approaching
paralysis.
The handwriting of ordinary educat-
ed people today lacks not merely
conscientious effort for rounded and
regular forms, but also any consistent
unity One word is written backhand.
the next slopes to the right. and a
third will be vertical. The prevalence
of the typewriter is given as an excuse.
But even the owner of the typewriter
is constantly writing memoranda. ac-
counts. and other material by hand
He is always imposing on friends.
business connections and subordinates
the labor which he is too hurried or too
neurasthenic to perform for himself.
There is really no more beautiful
writing than the Old penmsnship which
the autographs of these signers will be
likely to illustrate. The decadent
lourishes prevalent about twenty years
ago were. in comparisos. as the man
who loads himself VITA jewelry and
paints his face. Ellicott City Times.
Some men can stand still and yet
get into a moving picture.
Also hoping is all right. but don loaf
on the job while doing it,
It's all right to aim high, but be
sure your gun is loaded.
The Sick Man of Europe is giving
evidence of renewed vitality,
Some of the girls seem to have for
gotten that this is still leap year.
Wonder what becomes of all the
ducks the-hunters claim to have killed?
Don't ever try to tip waiter
enough TO make him lose his balance.
1t can't be done.
u Some would-be paragrapher has sug
EeRted that the Turks Ottoman their
guns to better advantage.
1t is more than probable that no col
ored man will ever again so into that
barn where they are to hang James
Jacobs. They'll be afraid of "hants.
So many nice things have been said |
by our people about the weather man
these past two weeks that we fancy he
is somewhat vsin-sort of weather
va
One OF the most arrant frauds of this
day is TO see q family move to town.
claiming the purpose to be % send the
TO school, and then farm the
out in little piocayunish jobs
and not let them attend school at all.
The modern farm is no place for a
or the dreamer. and those
who enthuse the ''back-to the-soil''
expectinhg easy money"
are liable to be disappointed. The re-
turns. however. are commensurate
with the pluck and energy, expended.
Everywhere over this broad land
people are riding fast elevators toward
heaven at the rate of 100 stories a
minute and are getting Off OF aero
planes and returning to earth at the
.ate of sixteen feet 8 second. Speed
ules everything except the work on
government buildings and the sedentary
-egg-a-day hen, who hasn't inereas-
ID her output in the last two million
decades.