Legible Handwriting Mr. P. W. Massey, Chairman of the Cathedral School for Girls, speaking at the closing lereises of the school on June 28, made an mteresting point when he referred to the nece sity for really legible handwriting. Mr. Massey was highly complimentary of the specimens; of handwriting placed on exhibition, but obviously had in mind the steadily deteriorate ing standard not particularly at the Cathedral School but at schools in general. Casting back to the Viclorian period when copper plate Perfection was esteemed but acquired after ong and patient practice, the contrast with the modern standard is marked. Calligraphy then Was as much an art as drawing oF painting or architecture, although while pictorial or architectural art has survived, calligraphy has rot except in engraving establishments where the demand for hand engraved visiting cards and invitations. still meets the competition of cast type. The'reason for this, perhaps, is to be found in the fact that in the desire for excel-Tence calligraphy passed beyond the simple needs of legibility and assumed extravagantly ornamental forms which are preserved only as picturesque examples of workmanship of a more leisurely period. Nowadays, education has ecome more intense, and calligraphy assumes ces Importance than' the inculcation of know-edge, and as the demand for this increases there' must be more resort to mechanical means of greater efficiency to cope with the vastly expanding field of utility. Hence, the typewriter. Outside schools, there are few spheres of endeavour, especially in the mercantile world, where the modern tempo can be accom: modate by handwriting. In many schools the United States, a typewriter is an essential art of the student's equipment, and although {the graceful art so polished in the last century maybe suffering it cannot be said that the standard of education has suffered. Even in Iiterature, where the muse is supposed 10 exfercise its play according to the author's will transferred from the brain to the hand, mechanical means have wrought tremendous Transformation. The author of bygone days who shut himself in his study while words and thoughts flowed from the pen in his fngers—ard sometimes beautiful illustrations as insets—is now an anachronism, or rather, a rarity. The typewriter has produced many modern classics, and works on a lesser scale have been produced by dictation to shorthand writers and some via the medium of the dictaphone. As for legibility, any bank clerk will tell you that signatures nowadays are symbols decipherable in cases of doubt by the handwriting specialist. This does not mean to infer that Mr. Massey is crying in the wilderness with his reference to more legible handwriting. It goes to. show the need for more attention to this ordinary accomplishment of the student who, negleetf ff this aspect of school training, under modern influences of a less insistent World, may help to bring about the extinction of one of man's first achievements in. his emergence from the barbaric age along the path of enlightenment and civilization—the ability to write by. his own physical efforts, There may come a time when' civilization is once again plunged back into barbarism and it would be itonia to think that emphasis on mechanical means may have deprived him of his earliest accomplishment, The Servant's Perquisites The announcement by a local firm of prov vision dealers that henceforth prices will placed on a nett basis, eliminating the discount which Is generally regarded as. the. servant's perquisite on the monthly bill, should provide subject for thought and raise a sympathetic response from local housewives, As. every householder knows, the compradore shopping system in Shanghai produces a scale of prices Which includes the payment of five or seven and a half per cent. discount which goes to the houseboy, and "in. some cases household. bills are kept unduly high merely' for the purpose obtaining this little perquisite, although the thrifty housewife keeps the bill as low a8 pos sible." If, of course, at this juncture one shop can announce that it is possible to do. business fon a'strietly nett basis it is an Indietment of the general system in existence for years, an indication of the casual nature of shopping.
better and more affluent. days,. this small percentage as a domestic perquisite did not matter much, and against It there were also happy days when the compradore presented hhis customers with a nice cumshaw present at Christmas as_a mark of goodwill and an inducement for continued favours. The present times, with low exchange and high prices, per= mit of no deviations. from strict economics of domestic expenses and shopkeeping, and any move to ce-ordinate the two within the limits household budgets will be welcomed through= out' the community. 'The point does arise, however, that if this perquisite has been con= sidered the houseboy's, and, therefore, reckoned 'a5 a part of his wages there must be' some sort of adjustment unless resort to dishonest prac tices 1s to be had—or in some cases, intensified, A correspondent writing in today's Issue of this journal has some very pertinent remarks to make on the subject, but that does not dispose the general condition of Chinese. servants. If their wages are considered sufficiently high then there is no need for discounts from the compradore. On this there is a. variety of opinion and the principal test is whether the Boy' stays or moves on, In any ease, these aiiheuit times "provide an' opportunity for businesslike adjustment, and the fact that the move has come from a compradore is an me ication that more businesslike domestic and shopping arrangements con be made and should be encouraged.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.