Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-05-08

Which is the best way to write, on a
typewriter. or with pen or pencil? In
considering the "drugerics of author
ship" as James Boswell called it, this
is no small matter.
If the unacceptable labor of literary
composition begins with the dread of
starting to work, a feeling which besetS
most workers with words, it continues
with the actual task of putting those
words down on paper.
No writer has yet devised a better
method than involved in the use of a
sheet of paper and some sort of record
ing instrument. whether 1t be pencil,
pen or tipping machine.
Those who dictate their stuff" COM
prise only few in the long annals Of
the writing game. The general feeling
always has been and still is that there
is no method quite so good as watching
ones writing grow under ones very
eyes.
There is a certain durable satisfac-
ton in turning out sheet after sheet OF
fair paper covered with the thoughts
that belong to one as much as any
thoughts can.
Plumbing and carpentry and brick
laying no doubt have their compenSa-
tions. their own peculiar satisfactions,
but surely no man working with build
ing materials ever quite achieved the
durable results Of some who have
worked with words
The advent of the typewriter gave
mankind an utterly new means OF put
ting his thoughts on paper.
1t was inevitable that such con-
venient. handy and above all leglble
method OF writing should have been
adopted instantaneously by writer's
everywhere, especially where quick
results were necessary.
Composition no less than other en-
deavorS has felt the urge of the rage
for speed. The world moves on at such
pace. and has so concentrated its
thoughts on the subject of speed, that
nothing is immune to it. Great presses
are roaring night and day for more
copy; their Unsuitable mawS always
cry for more.
In transferring the news of the day
into print, an everyday miracle which
never grows stale. the typewriter is in
dispensable. OF course. it was done in
the days before this machine. but only
III a rudimentary way compared with
the manner in which great modern
daily covers the news of the world
In other lines of the writing art the
typewriting machine has made a big
place for itself. The use of 1t comes
natural to some men, to others not
quite so much so. A typewriter, for the
uses of what may still be called liter
airy composition, has several advantages.
One of these is that it gives the
writer a comparatively clean rough
draft, so that he may more easily go
back and make such corrections and
additions as he finds necessary.
It's product more nearly gives him an
idea of the way his work will actually
look in print than any other method.
He can come near seeing his work as
others will see it.
On the typewriter pages he sees
himself as others see him! Then there
is a phase of the matter which must
never be forgotten: The printer, the
compoSitor whether he use hand-Set
type or linotype or monotype, is neces-
Sary pardner.
The more legible his copy" every
thing else taken into consideration, the
fewer errors he will make in setting up
the writer's production. Every one has
heard stories of the miserable penman-
ship of the great Horace Greeley. Ger
tainly printer has right to be pro-