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Show CALLED FOR MUCH ATTENTION Users of Quill Pens Had to Be Endowed En-dowed With a Great Deal of Patience. We have complained of our fountain foun-tain pens, but the constant mending required by quill pens must have proved a severe trial in the days when no others were available, says the London Chronicle. Alexander I of Russia thought it necessary to employ a man whose sole duty consisted in cutting pens. He was required to have a supply of not less than one hundred quills always ready. This number was by no means excessive, ex-cessive, for Alexander would never use the same pen twice. Even the writing writ-ing of a signature spoiled a pen, in his opinion, for subsequent use. The quill cutter, who received a salary of 340 a year, accompanied the czar in all his journeys, including campaigns against Napoleon. Writing implements changed considerably consid-erably for the better during Sir Walter Wal-ter Gilbey's long spell of life. "Though quill pens are still in use," he remarks in his "Recollections of Seventy Years," "I remember the time when one seldom saw any other kind. Steel pens in their early days were expensive ex-pensive and ill made, and few people used them. The paper we had 70 years ago 'may have been partly to blame; it had neither the substance nor the surface we take as a matter of course nowadays. "I remember when envelopes came into use, and what a boon they were considered after the old systems of closing letters with wafers or wax. Before envelopes were invented letters were always written with an eye to the position of the wafer or seal, a blank space being left to correspond with the space where this would be put on the outside, lest the written portion should be torn in opening." |