Wetting A Lead Pencil

London Tid-I lts: The act of put ting a lead pencil to the tongue to we it, just before writing, which we notici in so many people, is one of the odditiei of habit for which it is hard to give anj reasnn, unless it began in the day: wheu lead pencils were poorer thai uow, and was continued by example in to the next generation. A lead pencil should never be wet It hardeps the lead and ruins the pen cil. This fact is known to newspapei men and stenographers. But nearlj every one else does wet a pencil before using it. This fact has been doflnit8lj settled by a clerk in a newspaper office Being of a mathematical turn of mimi he ascertained by actual count that o.' fifty persons who carne into jthe ofiïc: to write an advertisement or notice forty-nine wet a pencil in their mouth: before using it. Now, this clerk alwf.y uses the best pencils that can be procured - in fact, is a connoisseur in lead pencils, cherishing a good one wil!, somethtng of the pride a soldier feels in his gun or sword; and it hurts tais feelings to have his pencil spoiled. But politeness and business consideration' require him to lend his pencil scores oi times every day. And often, after i: had been wet, until it was hard anc! brittle, and refusd to mark, his fe?lings would overpower him. Finally, he sume uueap pencns, snarpene them and kept them to lend. The firs person who took up the stock pene was a drayman. He held the point i hls mouth and soaked it for sevetv minutes, while he was torturing him self to write an advertisement for missing buil dog. Then a sweet-look ing young woman came Into the office with kid gloves that buttoned half th Iengtli of her arm. She picked up th same oíd pencil and pressed it to he dainty lips, preparatory to writing a advertisement for a lost bracelet. Th clerk would have stayed her hand even at the risk of a box of the bes pencils ever made, but he was too late And thus that pencil passed from mout to mouth for a week. It was sucked b people of all ranks and stations, an all degrees of cleanliness and unclean liness; but we forbear. Surely no on who reads this will ever again wet hi lead pencil.