Democratic Sentinel, Volume 20, Number 23, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 June 1896 — Writing Letters on Bricks. [ARTICLE]

Writing Letters on Bricks.

Persian and Chaldean improvements on Egyptian methods of producing and preserving literature were of great value to the literary world of that era, and even this generation has reaped benefits from them. Instead of doing their printing on pyramids and monuments where moth and rust could not corrupt, they engraved their short stories, local paragraphs, billet-doux and correspondence on soft clay bricks, which were afterwards burned, making an extremely durable literature. In this It was much more convenient for the postoffice department, for it was easlet to send them from city to <Mty than tq carry around Cleopatra’s needles. In either case it w’ould be a little unpleasant for our modern letter-carrier about St. Valentine’s day. Epistolary correspondence was apt to be a little slow by this brick process, but a letter once completed, lasted as long as painted china. We can imagine a conversation something like this in those days: “Have you written to your mother lately, Mrs. Dooars?” asks Mrs. Daarjeeling. “Oh, yes,” answers the former, pointing to a row of soft elay cakes on a side table; “I began a letter three weeks ago and It is nearly finished now. Next week I will send -it to be fired, and my mother will be delighted to think that I answered her last letter so soon.”— Washington Pathfinder.