| Show WETTING LEAD PENCILS The act of putting a lead pencil to the tongue to wet Sib just before for wilting Is one of fthe oddities which it Is hard to give any reason when unless it began in the days pencils were pOOl er than now and the was continued by example to next generation A lead pencil should never be wet the It hardens the lead and ruins pencil This fact is known to newspaper news-paper men and stenographers But nearly everyone else does wet a pencil pen-cil before using it The fad was deUnitely settled by a newspaper clerk away down east of Being of a mathematical turn mind be ascertained by actual count that of fifty persons who came Into his office to write an advertisement advertise-ment or a church notice fortynine wet a pencil in their mouths before using it Now this clerk always uses the best pencils cherishing a good one with something of the pride whiph a soldier feels in his gun or sword w Ic and it hurts iiis feelings to have his pencils spoiled But politeness polite-ness and business considerations re quirethim to lend his pencils scores of times a day And often after it had been wet till it was hard and brittle and refused to mark his feelings wduld overpower him Finally he got some cheap pencils and sharpened them and kepi them to lend The first person who took up the stock pencil was a dray man whose breath smelt of onions and whisky He held the point in his mouth and soaked it several minutes while he was torturing himself in the effort to write an advertisement for a miss Ing bulldog Then a sweotloobinp lady came into the office with kid gloves that buttoned half the length of her arm She picked up the same old pencil and pressed it to her dainty lips preparatory to writing an advertisement a lost bracelet The clerk would have staid her hand even at the risk of a box of the beat Faber pencils but he was too late And this pencil passed from mouth to mouth for a week It was sucked by people of all ranks and all degrees de-grees of cleanliness and uncleanli ness But twere well to forbear Surely no one who reads this will ever wet a lead pencil |
