Paragraphs, punctuation, paper, OH MY!

Well, I had been putting off writing this post because I was desperately trying to find more evidence on what I was going to write about. Even in absence of the evidence, I'll go ahead and write this post.

Frances and I were talking about the infamous "Monogamy" letter written to Carrie E. Hodge by her dear cousin James "Jim" Martin. (I will post the letter next). Frances made a comment about how hard it is to read Jim Martin's letters sometimes because he just jumps from one subject to another with no transition. I had noticed the same thing BUT, having read more letters of the error at this point, I think I know why it seems this way.

It all comes down to paper and postage, I think. I remember learning somewhere that paper was a precious commodity 100 years ago. I know during times of war in particular (such as WWI and WWII), it was important to use as few sheets of paper as possible to write letters in order to save money on paper and postage. The result is long letters with no margins or paragraph breaks! You never know how valuable a paragraph break is until you are reading Jim Martin's letters which often seem to be one long run-on sentence. I noticed especially in the "Monogamy" letter that Jim was definitely thinking about saving paper. On the first two pages, the writing is edge to edge, small, and cramped. In the letter James Martin is copying an article from a magazine to send to Carrie. At the end of the 2nd page, he is almost done with the article but it probably became clear that he was not going to fit it all on 2 pages. Thus the final page does not have nearly as much writing! He finishes the article, makes some closing remarks, and signs off. The writing on this page is much bigger with lots of space between lines. It's as if he said "Oh well! Gotta use another sheet anyways so might as well be sloppy while I can!"

The other thing I've noticed is that the punctuation is either really difficult to decipher or it is just non-existent. When I started typing up the letters, I was going to try to stay true to spellings, grammar, punctuation etc. Well, I've decided that although those things are really cool in a historical sense, it is a lot easier understand the letter if I take a few guesses as to the placement of commas and the beginnings of sentences. Therefore in most of the letters I've manufactured paragraph breaks in order to make the reading easier for everyone. After you read the next post of Jim Martin's letter, imagine reading it in old cursive with no paragraph breaks... I find it fun! Others find it tedious and frustrating... I love this project though - it is relaxing to just sit down and puzzle out a letter and learn a little more every day about these people I call my ancestors. Enjoy!

P.S. Two more things - James Martin in particular LOVES to underline things so whenever possible, I underline as he does. Second, when I typed up "Monogamy" each typed page equaled 1 of his handwritten pages... If you've ever typed up something hand written, you will know this is really amazing. When I type up stuff I've written, two hand written pages usually fit on one typed page...