The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1913-09-18
STORIES OF BAD WRITING.
Sometimes Brings About Funny Com
plications.

Sheridan's writing was scandal to
his school and puzzled the town. He
once wrote a pass to Drury Lane,
and the doorkeeper stopped it's bear
er and Immediately pronounced it to
be a forgery, because he could de-
cipher it! To make matters worse,
Sheridan was also uncertain in his
spelling. A which," "where,' and
a "whether' in his hands, for in
stance, were as often as not deprived
of their "aiches," and thing was
to him always think and nothing
more.
The atrocious writing of celebrities
recalls the claim once made on behalf
of Baron Bramwell that he wrote
three hands: lone which he alone
could read, another which his clerk
could read and he couldn't, and a
third which nobody could read,' and
the last named was his usual style.
Lord Curzon, when a young man
at college, once found his bad hand
writing stand him in good stead.
Writing two letters, one to a relative,
the other to a chum, he enclosed
them in the wrong envelopes. 1t
chanced that in the second letter he
made some uncomplimentary refer
ence to his relative, and on discover
ing the mistake he had made he
awaited developments with anxiety.
There presently came a letter from
the uncle. Il have tried to decipher
your epistle,' it ran, but your writ
ing is so atrocious that cannot make
head or tail of it. However, l guess
the drift of it to be that you need
some money, you rogue, so I enclose
a cheque."
Bad handwriting is not always a
handicap in life. The late Lord
Goschen once said that his father
attributed the foundation of his for
tune to the fact that he was obliged
to found a firm because he wrote such
a bad hand that no one would take
him for clerk. Of Goschen HIM
self, Arthur Elliot records that "his
handwriting got steadily worse, and
in the later years he might have spelt
as he chose. At length his script
became undecipherable even by him
self. He could not, when speaking in
parliment, make out what it was that
he had put on paper, and he thus
came in later days to abandon almost
entirely his old practice of making
notes.
Prof. Blackie had peculiar fist. l"
An elderly compositor on the Scots
man, however, knew nearly all about
the professor. One night there was a
particularly difficult manuscript from
the professor. 1t was put before the
expert, with an inquiry as to whether
or not he could set it. Il could not do
that" said the veteran from Inver-
ary; but if I'd ma pipes here I could
play her"
Another instance of the usefulness
to other people of illegible handwrit-
ing is included in the vast collection
of anecdote and fable that deals with
the writing of Horace Greeley. One
compositor could never get used to
his appalling scrawl, and, in rage at
the continued typographical errors"
Greeley sent note to the foreman
to discharge the man at once, as he
was too inefficient a workman to be
any longer employed on the Tribune.
The foreman did it, but the compost
tor got hold of the note and took it
to another office, where the foreman,
after much puzzling, finally read it:
Good and efficient workman, and
long employed on the Tribune" and
promptly took him in.
Joaquin Miller, the Poet of the
Sierras," who died few months
since, has been put forward as the
worst writer that ever lived. The
secretary of a literary society once
invited him to attend a banquet, and
received an answer, of which no one
could decipher a word. He wrote
again to the poet, stating the difficult
ty. and suggested that, in replying,
he should make cross at the foot of
his letter if he were coming, and a
circle if he could not be present. Mill
er complied with the request, but no
body could decide whether the mark
he made was intended for circle or
cross.-Philadelphia Ledger.
Sheriff EludeS Mob.