The Saint Paul globe., April 23, 1905, Image 10

About The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905

Image provided by: Minnesota Historical Society; Saint Paul, MN

                
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HELEN KELLER, the wonderful
deaf and blind girl, has become
one of the principal characters
In a strange three-cornered ro
mance. Miss Keller has no notion of
marrying herself, but her fathful teach
er. Miss Annie Sullivan, has. And It was
necessary, before Miss Sullivan's lover
could obtain her consent to the marriage,
for him t o lay the case before Miss Kel
ler and ask her if her teacher might be
come his bride.
The consent of Miss Keller was easily
obtained, after John Albert Macey had
promised that she might go to their
home and live with them and retain the
same relations she had with Miss Sul
livan for the past sixteen years. If Miss
Keller had refused her consent to the
wedding there would have been none.
When Mr. Macey proposed marriage to
the instructor of the world's moet won
derful blind girl she was amazed, and
answered that she could never marry.
But, like most lovers, he would not ac
cept "no" for an answer and pressed
his suit.
"I cannot marry anyone," she said over
and over aeain.
"Why not," asked the persistent
wooer.
"Because—Helen."
"But you need not be separated from
Helen. Our home will be hers. You
may go on teaching her all your life."
There followed some personal argu
ments of the sort that all those who
have been engaged will remember are
most powerful. At their conclusion Helen
Keller's teacher said hesitatingly:
"If you will ask Helen, and if she Is
willing, I will think about It."
The lover sought Miss Keller in. her
etudy at their home in Wrentham and
made a second proposal of marriage,
this time to a gentle arbitrator. Miss
Keller put forth her hands and touched
those of her caller, as she always does
•when she is Interested.
"What did Miss Sullivan say?" she
asked with the swift hand pressure that
stand to her for speech.
"She said—she spoke of you," was the
answer of quick fingers.
"Dear Miss Sullivan. Do you love her?"
One hard hand clasp told the story.
"Does she love you?"
Another unmistakable hand clasp.
''Then marry, of course, and I hope
you will be very, very happy."
"We want you to be with us always.
You will be as dear and as necessary to
Miss Sullivan as you have always been.
We would not marry unless your life and
hers were to go on just as before."
A grateful mist covered the blind girl's
TVYHN'S OLDEST HKNDWRITING.
THE great Museum of Man at Har
vard University, which Includes
the Agassiz, University, Peabody,
Germanic, Semitic and Fogg Art
Museum, the Library and the Architec
tural Building, has more than a scientific
Bide. To the student it affords almost
unequaled opportunities for research
work., but to the average visitor who
passes through the innumerable corridors
It brings recognition of the truth of the
old adage that "there is nothing new un
der Ihe sun."
The yokes with which "them steers"
tBBl Ml t * ** J I,, Igi i^-
IN THE EARLIEST DATS
Assyrian Ciay Tablet, 4000 Years Old,
showing Vertical Letters in their Ru
dimentary Form.
drew Solon Chase over the hills of Maine,
the "ox harness" still employed in the
tar heel region of North Carolina, or the
Red River of the North, in Minnesota
and Winnipeg, are little different from
those pictured on Assyrian pottery and
Egyptian stone. The plow the Tagalog
use 3 today in the distant Philippines can
hardly be distinguished from that with
which Jewish slaves of the pre-Mosaic
period cultivated the alluvial fields of
the Nile. But most extraordinary of all
is the kinship of the present with the
ancient past in the preservation of lan
guage by means of written symbol*
The ' little lot who, with dots and
straight lines, draws a picture story on
a slate uses the same method that Aztec
and Hittite alike employed. The most
modern face of type is merely a revival,
or rather a survival, of the handwriting
«f medieval days, as may be seen by an
eyes. The pulse In her white throat
throbbed with emotion.
"Thank you, my dear friends. Now
please go to Miss Sullivan and tell her
that what you have told me has made
BM very happy and that I will be very
unhappy unless she marries you."
From that moment a new interest had
come into the girl's life. The rosy wing
of romance had grazed her very cheek.
There was a new, beautiful mysterious
element. in life, of which she had read,
but which had seemed until now very
far away and mythical. She talked of
the brldeeroom.
"He is a good, great-hearted man, I
know it by the touch of his hands. They
are hearty, generous, gentle hands, like
examination of the ancient manuscripts
In the Library- And this handwriting
In turn can be traced back, century by
century, to the hieroglyphics of the earl
iest times.
Fads In writing may come and go, but
its essentials do not change. In the Art
Museum and the Library one may see
the influence of the Renaissance on even
such a homely matter as this. "The fine
Italian hand" of metaphor had a very
real foundation in fact; it was the art
and social leaders from the South of
Europe who produced what might be
called euphemism In handwriting as well
as In speech. While the quirks, and
qulrls, and graces have dropped from
everyday conversation, they have sur
vived more or less In chirography.
A study of the old manuscripts in the
Library shows this plainly. Handwrit
ing seems to have been copied from one
person to another, and since the days
when the nobility and the elite wrote
with an exaggerated slant, this style of
forming letters has lingered among pen
men, except when they were under
stress either of time or volume of work.
Then the tendency is to revert to the
primary or more natural condition of
straight up-and-down and straight back
and-forward strokes. As one studies
ancient fragments and quaint parch
ments it comes as a surprise that the so
called vertical handwriting now so gen
erally taught In American schools, it-
Belf merely a revival of the popular and
familiar round hand "of our Immediate
ancestors, is not something new, but
something very old.
While experts on the whole favor the
natural hand, as vertical writing should
be called, and while it is coming into
more common use every day, one meets
strange cases of misunderstanding re
garding it It has been suggested that
it promotes deception and protects the
forger, yet expert studens of manu
scripts will tell you that the simpler and
plainer chlrography is the more difficult
it is to imitate exactly. On this point
Dr. Persifor Fraxer of the Franklin
Institute in Philadelphia, who Is the
author of "Bibliotics or the Study of
Documents. Determination of the Indi
vidual Character of Handwriting and
Detection of Fraud and Forgery," says:
"The relation of any system of writing
to the prevalence of forgery is, in my
opinion,' to be represented by zero.
Even typewriting, which seems to offer
the forger the greatest opportunities, is
likely to prove to him a snare. Systems
of penmanship can have no effect on
forgery through-facilitating or rendering
more difficult the imitation of another's
hand. There are so many characteris
tics; »i every handwriting, unknown and
Invisible to the possessor, that the shape
or appearance of the writing is of the
least importance in setklnj the author."
Joseph Jefferson's hands, that you can
c\ng' to all your life. 4ear Miss Sullivan
—hands that will never wander, that will
never for a moment fall you. They are
dear hands, honest hands. Oh, Miss Sul
livan, it is almost us wonderful as though
I were going to be a bride myself. I
would have been miserable if you had not
accepted him. Is there a name for the
third in the marriage. Miss Sullivan?"
"She—she may be bridesmaid."
"And after that?"
"Then she may be the companion, the
very dear friend, the housemate."
"And after that, dear Miss Sullivan,
the friend and teacher and godmother
of the children?"
"Perhapß we ought not to talk about
THE "FINE ITALIAN HAND."
Autograph letter by William IV.. who persisted In the Ornate Slant Writing.
Curiously enough opposition to advance
in educational matters comes, as a rule,
not from educators but from the laymen
who, under our American system of man
agement, have ultimate controL It Is
safe to say that most of the opposition
in such matters as that of vertical writ-
Ing comes from these outsiders. They
suppose It to be an unjustifiable innova
tion and most of them would be might
ily surprised to find that in the hand
writing of all times and by all people
the vertical has prevailed. From th*
THE ST. PAUL GLOBE, APRIL 23. 1903.
that now," came flutterlngly from Miss
Sullivan's nervous hand.
Helen Keller talked a great deal in
dumb fashion about trousseaus and made
Miss Sullivan take her to the shops so
that she might handle the soft stuffs of
which bridal gowns are made. She in
sisted that she would, in good time, buy
the bridal gown herself, and present it
to the bride. After awhile she had an
inspiration.
With rare Intuition in one who knows
by instinct only the strange ways of
lovers, she said one evening without the
lightest touch of guile in her innocent
hand:
"Dear Miss Sullivan. I have been a lit
tle homesick .of late for the touch of
time when writing was executed with
chisel and mallet, the characters have
been straight up anfl down. When a great
Assyrian King of 2000 B. C. wished to
preserve to posterity the record of hla
achievements In peace or war, they were
cut Into stone, which endures to this
day, in a strictly vertical hand. It is
quite plain that If vertical writing was a
fad 4,000 years ago, it is too old to be
one now; the slant hand is the fad,
rather, for It can trace its ancestry back
only about three centuries.
home hands. I would like to go to Flor
ence, Ala., to visit my family."
The day after she started to the South
ern town. Arrived there, she wrote gay
ly: "My family are so proud of me be
cause I can dance and keep time rhythm
ically without hearing the music. That
and everything else I owe to you. I say
| to them, as I have so many times said.
"My teacher is so near to me that I can
scarcely think of myself apart from her.
How much of my delight in all beautiful
things is innate and how much due to
her influence I can never tell. All the
best of me belongs to her, there Is not &
talent, or an aspiration, or a Joy In me
that has not been awakened by her lov
ing touch.' Think of my happiness! I
am to have two teachers Instead of one."
Miss Keller will soon return to the
home at Wrentham. which she shares
with Miss Sullivan, and will be as much
| absorbed in the wedding preparations aa
the bride herself.
It has been arranged that she shall
help to select the trousseau. She will be
the bridesmaid. She will sign the wed
ding certificate *as a witness. She will
! help receive the guests after the wedding,
' and she has chosen an old slipper of her
The evolution of the American school
boy's vertical writing is interesting. It
was not until the early days of the
Christian era that writings with the reed
pen and stilus became at all common,
and then the languages chiefly employ
ing it were Greek and Latin. Manu
scripts preserved from that time record
the birth of the natural hand. The "Co
dex Alexandrinus" of the fifth century is
an example of strictly vertical lettering,
and, indeed, verticallty prevailed until
the end of the Beventh century, when a
decay" set in.
The round, broad letters then began to
give way to narrow and oval ones, and
in the eighth century a distinct slant to
the right appeared. Following the laws of
evolution, which seem to show that it
takes a handwriting about 500 years to
develop, flourish and decay, chlrography
became more and more illegible during
the ninth century; but in the tenth the
monasteries, which were the seats of
learning, came to the rescue. There
was an immediate resumption of the form
er round, vertical script and so complete
was the restoration that the missals of
that time, Judged by their lettering, are
scarcely distinguishable from those ot
three centuries before.
Writing as an art continued thus until
the renaissance; then the fantastic Ital
ian school brought "italics" into exist
ence. This peculiar slant writing, which
still is seen now and then in type, was
the forerunner of the socalled ornamental
writing systems so popular a few years
but now disappearing again before the
faster and more legible modern vertical.
How the slant hand spread from the place
of its origin appears in a document of
the latter half of the 16th century to
Vhlch are attached the signatures of
eighteen of the clergy of France, all slant
ed and all practically illegible.
In the reign of Elizabeth the new
chirography reached England in state
documents, and the Queen, greatly fancy
ing the queer characters, made it the
fashion at court. Bo historically speaking,
slant writing is only a fad which wu be
queathed to English speaking people by
the whim of a woman; whereas, the ver
tical is as old as civilization and will last
as long as culture and learning. Indeed,
the persistence of the natural hand ap
plies even to the type in which these
words are set, for modern type is merely
a modification of the pen lettering of th«
days, when type was first used in the oc
cidental world.
BARBER SHOP AND RULES.
It was at a barber shop yesterday after
noon, on First avenue, that It happened.
"Next!" shouted the barber, who bad
just dealt with a customer. Two persons
at once sprang from the chairs where
they had been waiting patiently and ap
proached the knight of the razor, each
own to throw after the departing car
riage. She will welcome them on their
return from the bridal tour. She will
herself arrange the first dinner to be
given for them. Afterward she will be
come a third, and In many senses, the
first, in their household.
Miss Keller's teacher and friend of eigh
teen years is Miss Annie Mansfield Sulli
van. Her betrothed is John Albert Macy,
one of the honor men in his class of 1839
at Harvard. In English and philosophy
he won distinction. He was the regular
editor of the Advocate, ai:<l its last editor
in-chief. He was also editor of the Lam
poon. He displayed talent as an amateur
actor at college, and he was a popular
fraternity man. In 1900 he received the
degree of M. A., and the same year he
was made instructor in English at Har
vard, a position he still holds. He Is also
miscellany editor of the Youth's Com
panion. He is 28 years old. Miss Sulli
van is ten years older.
She was born in Springfield, of humble
parents. It was thought that the child
was blind, and a priest secured entrance
for her into the PerkinsMnstitute for the
Blind. An operation saved her from total
loss of sight, although she 'cannot see
.
QUEEN ELIZABETH'S FINE PENMANSHIP.
This Js the nearly perfect Vertical style in place of which the Queen tried ta
Introduce the Slant Fad.
ARE WOMEN BUSINESS FAILURES?
The economic causes usually assigned
for the low wages of the woman worker
are the oversupply due to the fact that
so few occupations are open to her. the
lack of organization among women wage-
UllMll, the fact that women are seldom
"brought up to a trade," and, conse
quently, are less highly skilled than men,
the Influence of custom and public opin
ion, and the politicar disabilities of wom
en. During the recent stock yards strike,
the president of the Woman's Union told
the women strikers at a meeting I at
tended the first week of the strike, not
to forget that their own wages were in
volved, for the wage-scale for which
they were all striking fixed the same
minimum wage for the unskilled woman
as for the unskilled man—a significant
fact that shows the effect of organization
alone on the wages of women.
The most recent and authoritative
statement on the subject by an econo
mist of note is to be found In Prof.
looking ferociously and Inquiringly at
the other. One of them was an elderly
personage, evidently from the country,
the other a young sprig of city breed,
whose down had Just begun to indicate
the slow and uncertain approach of
beard.
"Which of you Is next?" asked the
barber.
"I am," said the young man.
"No, you are not," protested the other,
"and. as I am the oldest, I claim first
chance. Besides, I am in a great hurry."
"Ah! I see you are from the country
and, of course, do not understand the
rules of society governing such cases as
this," said the youth.
"What la the rule?"
"Simply this. • Beauty goes before age.
So I will take the chair. See?"
• "Oh, well; that's right. Mr. Barber
shave him first. He has got the best of
me by that rule of his. and. come to
think of it, he's right, according to the
rule where I come from."
"Indeed? What Is the rule where you
come from, old chap?" asked the young
fellow, as he fixed himself comfortably
In the barber's chair.
"Well, young man, the rule down my
way Is that we always keep the pigs
ahead of Seattle Post Intelligencer.
ti;,-; V ■ • «
CAPT. SKINNER'S GOOSE.
Captain Skinner was in Easton the lat
ter part of last week and related a re-
clearly today. In 1887 sho was graduated
from the Perkins Institute, and sent to
Alabama to teach Helen Keller. Since
that time they have been Inseparable
companions, and their friendship has
transcended that of the Scriptural David
and Jonathan, of the legendary Damon
and Pythias.
Mr. Macy met the girl while he was &
senior at Harvard. Shortly he found the
teacher even more interesting than her
wonderful pupil. Often he was seen bl-»
cycling with them on the smooth roads
about Cambridge while Miss Keller was
a student at Radcliffe. He went to St.
Louis with them last summer and assisted
at the demonstrations Miss Keller publicly
made of her genius "of touch and the won*
derful receptivity of her mind. He wrote
the introduction of her book, "The Story
of My Life."
Persons who saw his indefatigable at
tention to the twain believed that they
saw the budding of a romance for the
blind girl. And it is her romance, a hap
pier romance than that of Nydla, the
blind girl in "The Last Days of Pompeii."
It is not given to any one else to be so
important a third, to be as nearly en-*
gaged and married as is Helen Keller.
Nicholson's now Elements of Political
Economy. He says: "When large num
bers of women were employed In the
same industries as men, the tendency
was fur the men to* gain the advantage
Jn industrial competition; they were sti*
perior in physical strength and still mora
so in moral coercion. Thus women were
gradually excluded from the more gainful
occupations, and b"y force of habit they
came to be considered unwomanly. Until
recently, though half the people in lha
world af 1 females, there was still a preju
dice against lady doctors; and though
women are often litigants, they are rare
ly lawyers, even if the law permits. Th«
exclusion of women from certain occupa
tions Increased the supply and thus low«
ered the wages in employments to which
they were admitted. In recent years,
however, the great natural economio
forces have been working in favor of
women." — Edith Abbott, in Harper's
Weekly.
markable story concerning a goose on
his farm. He states that he Is in the
habit of counting his geese and putting
them in the stable every night, but on
the night of the great blizzard one goose
was missing and could not be accounted
for until a few days ago, when he waa
■ shoveling a pile of snow out of the sta
ble yard at the Fear of the barn. As he
reached the bottom of the drift his shovel
struck against something soft. Upon in
vestigation he located his missing goose,
which had been covered up in the snoW
for more than six weeks without any*
thing to eai. or drink. He states that the
goose was still alive, but very gaunt and
weak from the exposure and abstinence
from food. He took the goose to the
house and cared for It a day or so, feed
ing judiciously. It thrived and became
very hearty, and was able to join the
balance of the flock, from which It had
been separated for nearly two months.—*
Easton (Md.) Ledger.
» ♦ «
NO USE FOR -MASHERS."
A Portland "masher" insulted a younj
woman and was arrested. He gained his
liberty somehow and he Insulted her
again. A bystander licked him soundly
and the police judge commended the by
stander's excellent work and Intimated
:hat he could have an ii^dulgent hearing
in that court whenever he saw fit to take
the law in his own hands.—Portland Ore
go ni^n.