Evening star., 1933-10-31

A clear effective, yet thoroughly
characteristic penmanship is not often
found.
Handwriting still remains hand
writing, despite the thousands of in
ventions in all lines.
There are machines to do all sorts Of
things, some of them better than can
be done by hand, and certainly great
deal faster, but no handwriting ma
chine" has ever superseded the human
hand.
Now as always, if one wishes to write
q note to friend, message carrying
the deepest personal touches, he does
it in his own handwriting.
1t would seem that most human
beings, therefore, would take the
trouble to evolve a worthy penmanship.
The exact opposite is mostly true.
Every person who receives large
number Of misSives knows that clear,
effective, characteristic handwriting is
rarity.
Most often letters written with pen
and ink or pencil are difficult to read.
Sometimes it is necessary to call in an
other to decipher certain words.
And then there are few letters. now
and then, which one must entirely
guess at, so miserable is the hand
writing.
Poor aid indifferent penmanship
comes about mainly, we may believe,
because Of haste, Indifference to others
and the element of time.
Every one who learns to write is
started more or less correctly with the
proper and careful formation Of letters
and words.
Upon this foundation one ought to
a characteristic penmanship, but the
truth is that he is the exceptional per-
son who does.
Now, there is a vast difference be-
tween what used to be called copper
plate" penmanship and thoroughly
good, Characteristic handwriting
1t Is probably because even the
youngest child recognizes this that the
element of hurry is permitted to come
into the picture
Thought invariably is the faster Of
the two. so 1t IS not to be wondered at
that the hand writes faster and faster
trying to keep up with it.
Almost every one has two handwrit-
ings, formal one, and scribble, as
1t is called.
The difference is largely a matter of
speed.
When one is taking notes or writing
mostly for ones own benefit, one in
dulges in faster and naturally worse
formed letters.
Often this average "scribble" becomes
sort of personal shorthand, as 1t were,
with many OF the letters left out bodily,
and smany Of those left in so very
sketchily traced that the writer later
has a difficult time making them out
himself
That is the plain danger Of the
scrawl, that the writer will not be able
to read his own handwriting when he
wants to. He makes out most of it,
easily enough. although a stranger
might not be able to read a word Of it,
but what on earth is this particular
word?
1t invariably happens that the diff
cult word is the key to the entire SEN
tence. Without the one word. the re-
mainder makes no sense at all. Just
why one who scribbles almost invariably
does his very poorest work on the key
word is something of a mystery, but
that Is most often the case.
Human beings are VIGOROUSLY indit.
ferent to the rights of other human
beings, especially in the smaller fea-
lures of life and living
Despite the several thousands of years
during which regard for others has
been an ideal of man-and Prof.
Breasted tells us. in his new book, THE
Dawn OF Conscience" that such thought