Perth Amboy evening news., 1923-11-21

which it calls rersonality-than 1t
does upon conscientious efficiency.
Thus, the young man who sits up
half the night making a painstak-
ing copy of his letter applying for a
joD invariably loses out to the man
who spends five minutes getting the
firm on the telephone.
Not only is beautiful penmanship
non-essential to present-day bust
ness, but in most cases 1t is consid-
cred positively undesirable Nearly
every large business institution of
these times has its staff of personnel
experts, who are well versed in hui
man Psychology and hence presum-
ably adept in finding the right in
dividual for the right job. Inter-
views for employment are usually
solicited through letters written to
these personnel experts, and when
a letter m In which has been
laboriously written by hand the
writer is deduced to be a plodding,
painstaking soul who would prob
ably be incapable of acting on his
W initiative. Such an application
would never be considered for the
job Of Office executive or salesman.
! = y =
The vice-president Of a large auto
mobile corporation tells of an Incl
dent illustrative of the methods of
the firms personnel experts. One
day, several candidates for a newly
opened agency in a middle-western
city were sitting in the employment
room of the home Office waiting to
hear which one would be chosen for
the position. Finally, the employ
ment manager, who had privately
interviewed each of them, came for
ward with a paper in his hand.
The ia selected for this job"
he ySf1nounced, lis the man who
wrote the striking signature on this
application blank. Which of you
wrote it? / can't read it,"
While this is doubtless an eXaggera
ton, 1t is true that the personnel
expert looks for personality in an
applicants penmanship rather than
technique. Some of them have made
such an extensive study of the mat
ter that they rely entirely upon
handwriting as an index to charac-
ter. One such expert has discovered,
for instance, that m~ethodical and
systematic persons always write at
a slant of 80 or 40 degrees, on a
perfect alignment throughout, top
and bottom, carrying all the letters
to the same height. Very different,
he says, is the handwriting Of the
aggressive, Independent, self-seek-
ing type of man, whose letters are
usually bold, heavy and vertical.
with exaggerated crosses on the t's.
= =
When persons write now at one an
gle and now at another. it indicates
hat they have no continuity OF
thought or work. They lose sight
of their purpose and may be said
to have no true ambition. Some
times, however, nervousness is re-
sponsible for writing of this kind,
particularly when the lineation is
bad. Many 1ourishes and elaborate
curves betray weakness, especially
In the way of education, for as a
rule the more illiterate a person is
the more flourishes he makes. Or
namental capital letters are always
an indication of bad taste.
The independent, ambitious, and
habitually successful type of mar
usually makes big, plain capital let
ters, with the rest of the writing
symmetrical and neither large nor
small. An exception has been noted
In the case of successful engineers
however, whose penmanship. though
neat, is seldom symmetrical.
The personnel expert who depends
upon p~enm9nship as IN index tt
character, let's no curve or do
escape his notice. If the final l
1 ~, NhA ~ 80 - -,l,n11 Ywvne~A iH NFn.
longed IL a thick stroke for an incl
and a half. it proves to him thai
the writer Is the sort of person who
makes a, large fuss over nothing
Unconnected letters in the same
word signify that the writer is care
less in many things, including none,
matters. Here is a blank space
left at the end of a line, although
there was plenty of room for tbs
next word. That signifies useless
extravagance and lack of adaptabil
ity. The more money a man owes
it is said, the more paper he coverI
in writing a letter.
. =
Another class of business men t
whom penmanship is important a.
a means of judging character, /
the inspectors OF the big bondinl
companies which underwrite thou
sands of human risks every year
The applicants for such bonds sci
!, dom realize how carefully their pen
manship is examined and Aled ava.
for future reference. 1t might b
supposed that here, at least, a fine
| legfble hand would be esteemed, blu
/ on the contrary 1t is viewed Will
. the greatest suspicion.
: These bonding experts know tina