THE AUTOGRAPH BOOK

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 461, 20 March 1909, Page 11

THE AUTOGRAPH BOOK

How persistent (says a writer in Australia ; where they have the disease in a bad form) is tho habit of keeping an autograph-book, 'in , which'. weary friends aro asked to write maxims or verses; and how monotonous tho books generally are! There are certain quotations which no autograph-book can escape, Bo Good;- sweet Maid," "To thino own self bo true," "The Moving Finger writes. Tho sentiments tend towards the mournful-commonplace, like In Memoriam verses watered, down. I was onco at a loss to understand the reason of this monotony, but I learned it on a recent afternoon, when a girl was collecting our signatures in her tfvii; <Tt ? anof ; hor eirl spoke up plaintively. Ido wish you would let me copy some of these out,; it is so hard to think what to write when you arc asked to write something. Then she religiously wrote five ° r Ti Sl p , beginning (of course) wjth ;Be Good, sweet Maid." When I begin an autograph-book I shall buy ono with perforated leaves that rip out casilv. Then I sin 11 t? rid of the Moving Fingers and the Forget-me-nots, and the rest of tho encumbrances; and though my autographic be sender I hope that it will not bo so hideously dull as the rest.