Democratic Sentinel, Volume 7, Number 46, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 December 1883 — Writing and Printing. [ARTICLE]

Writing and Printing.

This is an age of writing. Paper k cheap, pens are good, lamps and spec taeles make night work possible anil* and comfortable. Postage is but a tenth of what it was a half a century back. Everybody writes letters either to his 'friends or to his paper, or in the interests of his business. In earlier days the teacher of English wore one pen in his cap, if of penmanship two, if of Latin three. But now children in the primary schools write with either pencil or pen, and to make one’s mark is sufficient evidence of. illiteracy. It would seem that nothing is easier than to learn reading and writing. Such is not the case. In our best elementary schools from three to five years are occupied in acquiring these simple elements of education, and if the spelling is mastered, as many more. Beading opens the door to all knowledge, and a child that can read, write and cipher is fairly well educated—at least such can amuse themselves and do business intelligently and successfully. By the phonetic method of spelling, by shorthand writing, and by the introduction of better kinds of type there is no doubt that the three B’s could be much easier acquired, and their use made much more general and efficient than by the present spelling and type. The English is a hybrid language. Its pith and core is Anglo-Saxon; Latin and French have been molded with it; its scientific and technical terms are many of Greek origin. There is, of course, a benefit in the present style of spelling which preserves and suggests the origin and etymology of the roots and prefixes which compose English words, but its spelling gives little insight as to proper-pronunciation. Over forty different sounds are represented by about half as many letters, many of which do double or even quadruple duty.

As to types and printing, these are the outgrowth of handwriting. They reflect the progress of later centuries, and have retained many useless vestiges. No doubt a far better system of type could be devised, and shapes of letters introduced, which could be easier read and less trying to the eyfe. French type is proverbially harder to read than English or American. This is due to the narrowness of French letters. In reading, no letter is examined in all its parts. The eye travels a horizontal line, cutting all the short letters at a point just below the top, as can readily be proved by covering with a cord the upper half of the short letters in a line of print, when it will be found impossible to read the line. If the upper half is left exposed and the lower covered, the line can be easily read. The eye takes the upper traek, because, including capitals and accented letters, rise above the upper part of the short letters. The letters, then, should have shapes which vary greatly in the- part along which the line of. vision passes; but type founders, on the contrary, for the sake of uniformity, have flattened the round letters —as a, c, e and o—and have rounded the corners of the Square letters. Dr. Joval, of Paris, who has published a work on the physiology of reading and writing, suggests that the letters which stand above and below the line be shortened, and, in short, that a return to the characteristics of the old types may properly be made in the interest of legibility. Putting spaces between the lines adds little to the legibility, yet much to the expense; but the spaces between the letters of words is of the greatest importance, and should be increased. —IndianqpoH* Journal.