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i've been a writing teacher for a long time and have read many a student journal. i can decipher most handwriting if i sit with it long enough. general hancock's writing has taken me a long time to acclimate, but i think i have it down for the most part. i have learned how to recognize the difference between his "h", his "p" and his "ss" which, frightening all look like the same letter ~ so that when he says "hap" he means "pass" and "hrovipions" means "provisions" (misspelled).
this is not an easy thing.
general hancock, therefore i have determined, spent his purgatory crammed in a too-small grammar-school desk with a severely-bunned and scowling owly teacher hanging over his shoulder while he learned to write legibly.
this is what i believe.
with all my heart.
in his more legible moments, you get something like this:
which reads:
the word i can't figure out in this one just eludes me no matter how hard i look at it.
it looks like "cushion" but that makes no sense. betty seems to think it alludes to a pair of carpet slippers (or slippers of some ilk), but Hanty writes about the slippers later, asking if he can give prisoner 195 some (which, if Eckert was already authorized to do so, there'd have been no question about it). i'm at a total loss on this one. knowing what his "p" usually looks like, i even question the word "pair" here.
all this to say: thank you Lord for making Mr. Hanty's handwriting so so so nicely textbook by comparison. not quite as composition-book perfect as Poppet's, but highly readable compared to this mess. only once does Hanty ever sort of lapse into a lazy scrawl and even then his letters are very clear.
but hancock ~ hoo boy. what a pen!
(your obedient servant,) ~ yeah, that's legible!
: D
this is not an easy thing.
general hancock, therefore i have determined, spent his purgatory crammed in a too-small grammar-school desk with a severely-bunned and scowling owly teacher hanging over his shoulder while he learned to write legibly.
this is what i believe.
with all my heart.
in his more legible moments, you get something like this:
which reads:
Major Eckert has a pair [someone please tell me what this word is] and alet's forget for a moment the ominous expression "in his own way" or the curiously "correct" spelling of "Paine" (the goverment had yet to decide to conveniently change it to the more controversial "Payne" in an attempt to link their mysterious prisoner with known guerrillas). instead let's look at the manner in which hancock likes to float his t crosses over the letters and make slashes with his "j"s. or how he joins words together (like "Warhe" and "togive"). let's also note how messy the overall page is ~ full of blots and blobs (this selection is actually pretty clean ~ you wouldn't believe how slobby most of the others are). i swear, trying to decipher this man's handwriting has been mostly nightmarish.
little Tobacco which by direction of the Secretary
of War he is authorized to give in his own way,
to Paine.
the word i can't figure out in this one just eludes me no matter how hard i look at it.
it looks like "cushion" but that makes no sense. betty seems to think it alludes to a pair of carpet slippers (or slippers of some ilk), but Hanty writes about the slippers later, asking if he can give prisoner 195 some (which, if Eckert was already authorized to do so, there'd have been no question about it). i'm at a total loss on this one. knowing what his "p" usually looks like, i even question the word "pair" here.
all this to say: thank you Lord for making Mr. Hanty's handwriting so so so nicely textbook by comparison. not quite as composition-book perfect as Poppet's, but highly readable compared to this mess. only once does Hanty ever sort of lapse into a lazy scrawl and even then his letters are very clear.
but hancock ~ hoo boy. what a pen!
(your obedient servant,) ~ yeah, that's legible!
: D
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there are definitely some of his messier letters that i can scarcely read a few phrases. this one is definitely not so bad, but wow, without context it could say anything couldn't it!
: D
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However? AWESOME HANDWRITING.
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his words with lots of "f"s are more awesome. he does some weird thing with all of his danging letters that's just very bizarre and this sample doesn't really capture it.
: D
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From: (Anonymous)
antique handwriting
I had one name in a census report that took me two years to figure out. I got the name, eventually letter by letter (over the two years) Here's some of the things I tried (you may have tried them all already)
I printed it out on the computer dinking with size, both larger and smaller, for me sometimes Smaller makes things clearer. I also play with darkness of the ink.
I printed it out it VERY dark and traced over it from the reverse side (THAT actually got me a few letters)
I looked at it upside down.
I looked at the writing in a mirror.
Good luck!
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Re: antique handwriting
with hancock in particular i've found that if i relax my eyes and try to think about the way he makes strokes with his pen, i've managed to figure out most of his writing ~ but it takes a long time to think through each sentence and sometimes my eyes wear out before i've quite grasped a word or two.
fortunately, i know, for the most part, the context of every one of these letters because they are largely responses to Mr. Hanty's letters in which he asks very specific questions. so most of hancock's stuff is him answering (otherwise i would really be at sea).
i'll try some of your ideas and see what i come up with ~ thanks!
: D
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kidding ~ i'm pretty sure that couldn't be it.
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~ charming, in a way ~
: D