BAD WRITING.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 5094, 28 February 1927, Page 1

BAD WRITING.

ANNOYING MODERN FAD.

lUJNIC INSCRIPTIONS CONDEMNED

Among the many modern fads that the world would be far better without the most annoying is the adoption by business men of Runic characters for signing their names (writes “A Harassed Business Man” in the London Daily News), The outstanding characteristic df Runic inscriptions is that only those who write them know what they mean.

And so it is with quite two-thirds df the signatures appended to the letters one receives nowadays, business letters especially. They are quite undecipherable by all except the person who wrote them and possibly his clerks.

There is nothing more irritating than being unable to read the signature at the foot of a letter ; yet some of us are faced with this difficulty every day. A letter is neartly typed, probably well written, but fails to indicate the most important of all—who wrote it. You turn it this way and that, try all the customary devices for deciphering writing ; then you ask somebody else. After three or four people have wasted time over the scribble you have to give it ®P, knowing that if you do not give the correspondent his correct name when y< : «u answer he will be much offended. That is one of the inconsistencies <,f people who wilfully turn their signatures into callgraphic puzzles. So proud are they of their invention that they regard as a personal slight inability to fathom its meaning, Although what is intended for “John Smith” may look like a row of palings uprooted by a gale, you, t,he unhappy recipient, are expected to recognise it at first glance.

The bad practice of writing personal signatures illegibly is becoming more prevalent. Some adopt it as a precaution against 'forgery, though it is not; some because they think it is distinctive and “shows character.”

Really, it shows only carelessness. A few business men have adopted the practice of having their names typed above their signatures on letters. If this commendable device were in general use it would save >a vast amount of trouble.