ThLp Materia et Opus IIB"®€©€S"®'^'®C1 V^TS Erasmus "Writing cfif-l MATERIA ET OPUS Concerning Elegance in Stationery ^S^E^a^H^H^ffl^Bffl^l I I 1 By THEO. TRACY COPYRIGHTED 1900 BY THE Whiting Paper Company NBW YORK PHILADELPHIA CHICAGO ^j^iMf^ \«5 o c? TWO COPIES RhlCEi V t affic't) of thi APR •^1900 Weglstsr ef Copfpfghf^ tO V ^< PUBLISHED FOR THE TRADE BY THE WHITING PAPER COMPANY, MANUFACTURERS OF THE FAMOUS WHITING PAPERS FOR FINE CORRESPONDENCE, WEDDING INVITA- TIONS, AND HIGH-GRADE OFFICE STATIONERY, ETC., ETC. 56784 IF YOU WISH ANOTHER COPY OF THIS BOOK FOR A FRIEND YOU CAN GET IT FREE OF CHARGE AT YOUR STATIONERS f^. 7 /^/ ^ (f The Intimate Relation of Stationery to Personality THE paper on which we communicate our thoughts is as strong in its relief-like relation to those thoughts, as is a background of Titian, or Rubens, or Van Dyke to the portrait it has helped make so marvelously vital. It was, indeed, because these great artists were such masters of character-expression through color— because their genuis responded so harmoniously to the nature-themes they were to show in color-tones, that they most profoundly felt the in- timate relation of the background to the picture. It is a lesson Polite Society learned so long ago that it may be considered almost an innate quality— that the writing papers with which one's escritoire is supplied, must be as carefully toned to the messages to be sent out on them, as is the delicate film of the photographer's plate to the image it is to receive. One of the most interesting albums I know, is filled with Byway gracefully arranged autograph letters from celebrities to a of distinguished literateur. There are letters from Gladstone, Illustration Tennyson, Sir Philip Stanhope, the Bishop of London, Prince Bismarck, Emilio Castelar, Rubenstein, Emile Zola, Carmen Sylva, Madame Carnot; from Liszt, from Guy de Maupas- sant, from Salvini the elder, and from "La Bernhardt." The papers on which these letters are written, each singular- ly elegant in its adaptability, are as different as the chirogra- phics which join in making them precious. Open the book— for example— at this sheet of rich "gris perle" not too heavy, and not too smooth, but exceeding sumptuous to the touch. It is edged with a much deeper shade of the same dainty color, and bears an artistic devise of asps and tragic masque. Does not everything about this paper suggest the writer with- out even glancing at the "Sarah Bernhardt" so gracefully signed in upward, flowing hand? Here is another letter- sheet — a light weight of snow-white parchment, suggestive of elegant strength and culture. It is Salvini's name it bears — clear-cut and finely shaded as if on cameo. Turn the pages again, please, and stop at this handsome, creamy, satin-smooth leaf — singularly symmetric in form — with Emilio Castelar's name below. Just one more and a very precious The Power of Paper in Correspond- ence gem indeed, from this rare treasury — the plain, massively- rich, stately sheet that with large spaces between the lines of fine, firm writing, bears the name of Napoleon. To leave our album, and to come to our own actualities;— Have you ever stopped to think what power for attraction or repulsion there lies in a sheet of writing paper? Perhaps not, as far as the literal analysis of the sensation caused by the airy scrap of material goes. But is there even one among my cultured readers who does not exceedingly enjoy the rich, luxurious "feel" of the burnished, cream-tinted, impos- ingly-substantial sheets her writing desk contains? — and ad- mire the gossamer texture, the lawn-like surface, and the ex- quisite finish of other sheets lying beside these first-ready for other moments and other sending? What a satisfaction to lift a folio of thick "antique parchment" from its own com- partment, and what a pleasure to sense the delicate thinness of the artistically perfect "bond" of which she may convenient- ly send as many pages as she will to those with whom she would hold interchange of thoughts, though leagues upon leagues of land and sea lie between? It is but natural that the writer should have a consciousness ot the pleasant compli- ment implied in the sendingof messages penned on such taste- ful foundation, though it may seem so exactly part of what should be that she accepts the sentiment without defining it? It is just herein that the true secret of proper paper selection lies — for it is the ''•what should be' that the refined taste of a lady's stationery demands — and, as our ladies' taste indicates the trend of every culture-current, that is the criterion for every refined taste. Let her who has received the sheets which the innate understanding of fitness has sent, find others awaiting her — rough, smirched with spreading ink, out of size and out of tint — sans grace, sans tone, sans everything delicate; — repugnance is telegraphed through every fibre of her sensitive nature, indisposing her to accept the message in good will or even to give it passing heed, unless it be preceded by apology, which is the very poorest initiator of satisfaction and augurs ill indeed for the desired end. Does it seem much 3 A Soldier's Missive to say? It is nevertheless true, that on the adaptability of the paper on which momentous ideas are communicated, and intimate thoughts are expressed, depends many and many a time the making or the marring of friendships, of fortunes and of futures. This — from the time when the Egyptian magnates inscribed Historic their hieroglyphs on the Nile papyrus whose secret the sage Maiginalia of Memphis taught them, until now. How lack of uniformity in the size of these papyrus leaves must have jarred upon their despotic, luxury-loving dictators! Nature and not they, controlled the Nile plant's growth, and as she had decreed that the size of every papyrus sheath — and so of every leaf, — be different, their will was as nothing to her edict. That epicurian lover of Art, the Roman Emperor Hadrian, with passion for elegance surpassing any of his peers — gathered a wonderfully rich store of the writing material of his epoch, and raised it to high dignity in his magnificent Tivolian villa. It is Hadrian too, who has left us the most enthusiastic de- scription of the high art paper-making and attained in Alex- andria when he and his splendid following visited that opulent city. Pliny — master historian of his great, historic age, wrote much of the power of these "transcription sheets" in the years that preceded his own epoch. The Evangel of St. Ivlark, esteemed beyond price in the jewel-like temple on the Riva of the Grand Canal, was inscribed on a heavy, vellum-like paper, that, from point of progress, makes it infinitely more interesting than even the parchment sheets of the Apocrypha, so carefully guarded by brown-robed monks in the unrivalled scientific and theologic book and manuscript collection of the old Roman Cardinal's Palace. Centuries on centuries ago, China, Japan, the whole Levant, recognized the vital power of paper, almost with awe. Perhaps it was the deep super- stition which attended that stage of civilization that was a chief obstacle to its development then. All students of Eastern lore, know of the strange, Brahmin manuscript which was inscribed on great palm leaves; and all earnest inquirers into the pedigree of paper have learned of the Indian plant Paper as a Measure of Progress that yields a curious membrane, firm and white and small as the satin skin that lines an egg-shell, which long served the purpose of paper. "The measure of a people's progress," says a wise axiomist, "may be found in the amount of paper this people consumes." History places the seal of truth on these words. Wrote a philosopher of long ago: — "The highest stage of civilization is reached where there is the most perfect union of usefulness and beauty." To no great attainment of to-day does the latter saying apply more forcibly than to our paper production, and into no national product have national characteristics more closely interwoven themselves than into the papers to- day's peoples produce. Peculiar Qualities of the Paper Produced in Different Lands There is the paper of Belgium — which nation long held pre- cedence as producing more paper, for its size, than any other country; light and well-appearing, but not too perfect in texture and endurance, as a rule. There is French paper, somewhat resembling Belgian, but usually lighter, highly glaz- ed, clear, and very dainty in combination of tint and design. There are the great mills of the Rhenish Provinces, whose papers while not wholly unlike those of France and Belgium, are firmer in texture, with one side generally much more highly finished than the other. There are English papers, and Scotch papers, made of stock selected with great care, more solid in appearance than the others, and harder to the touch. Notable among these are Pirie's papers, which until quite lately, held ascendency over them all, for intrinsic value, great range of quality, finish and color, and especial adaptability to fine engraving. Some peculiar excellence has marked the papers of each of these countries, but none has learned how to combine these several excellencies — and to make the most of each excellence — until our own Country emphasized its place in Art Industries by its creation of papers which are, indeed, works of the highest and most cultured art. The Love Letter Foremost in the production of Fine Correspondence papers in this country is the Whiting Paper Company whose name is now recognized the world over, as the synonym for what is most elegant in the paper maker's art. Neither the exquisitely tinted papers of France, nor the light, well-appearing papers of Belgium, nor those of England and Scotland in smoothness and firmness, nor of Germany in strength and variety, outrival these beautiful papers. No other country consumes such quantity oi paper as we consume; equally, since the great mills of the Whiting Company were put in full operation, no other country produces such quality as we produce. The "Whiting Company's Papers — Combining all these excellences and adding others, is the finest in the world to-day The best paper production rests on a triple basis, which is The Basis fully sustained here; the part of nature in the most perfect of Fine growth of the plants the production demands; the part of Paper Pro- scienceiox finding and maintaining an absolute equipoise be- '^"'^**°" tween finest material and most subtle tinting; the part of man in the invention and operation of machinery which shall give this equipoise the highest material development. The sym- metric union of "usefulness and beauty" the Whiting Papers represent, is an especially significant fact to us to day, when we recall the words of our axiomists, and when we remember how intimate is the touch of writing paper, medium as it is of direct communication between mind and mind, and people and people. No papers manufactured abroad to-day perfectly respond to the demands of Polite Society, as do the papers of the Whiting Company; exquisite to the touch, daintily beautiful in tint, restful to the eye, firm and rich in texture, durable in sub- stance, their use helps give rythm to the poem of thought, magnetism to desire, dignity and character to expression. It is another "as it should be" that these refined papers are rapidly displacing all foreign papers, whose importation (as commercial statistics prove) has astonishingly diminished since they were placed within Society's reach, and it is another evidence of what "is", that the production of the Whiting Company's fine papers, has more than doubled within the last Charac- teristic Ele- gance of the "Whiting Papers Epochs in Paper Why the Whiting Paper is Best half decade. To touch lightly again on the magnetic power of paper; how much more grateful is the remembrance of those who, at parting, send us such paper — Pour prendre cong^; and how much more cordially we heed the Repondez s'il vous plait, thus written, of those who are to be guided by our own thoughts or determination concerning some matter in hand? Now that elegant etiquette demands paper instead of cards for the majority of announcements and invitations as well as for communications, the existence right at hand, of such paper, adapted as it is to all uses and all occasions, is far more important than it ever was before. As our epochs become more marked, so, perhaps, our papers may grow to be named for them, as the French named their Grand Soleil and Fleur-de- Lis quite as appropriately as they named those insidiously flattering papers — A V Etotle and la Demoiselle. The Whiting Paper's right of title to be what it is universally acknowledged to be — "the best paper manufactured to-day," rests upon its texture, which is its aesthetic power — its quality, which is the discriminating factor of its composition — and its general adaptibility, or power of satisfying refined tastes on all occasions. High class paper dealers have said much of the extreme difficulty experienced in exactly matching some strong or peculiar shade, once the original stock is exhausted. It is a very rare and a very great art to produce paper always practically the same in tint, but it is an art the Whiting Paper Company has made its own. The tints of their papers are the best, the most costly, and the most scientifically gauged and conserved. Its linen is real linen ; and its cotton is the whitest and purest, even if necessary to bring it from across the ocean, to meet the Company's immense demands. Their paper is made under the most favorable conditions ; the greater part of it is plated, the rest is perfectly calendered. The sorting is so scrupulously done that every sheet of paper with even the minutest speck in it, is immedietely cast aside. This does not apply to cloudy effects, however; for some papers with cloudy effects when held to the light, are among the very best. General Adapt- ability An Ele- The social exactions of the day are so many and so onerous, gantly tur- that even our most cultured ladies are sometimes obliged to nished ^ , , . . i i i • , • • ■ , „ ,^ , refresh their memories when lookinp: to their escritoire be- Escritoire '^ longings and to provide for the perfect equipment they and society demand, by taking note that they must be supplied with a variety of latest tints and latest styles, small a.nd large for different occasions and different chirographics. Each paper must have its own box or compartment — such an arrangement being not only pleasant to the cultured eye, but an unmistak- able hall-mark of quality. If, however, this direct personal care be rendered difficult through lack of time, or lack of in- clination, a satisfied sense of relief rests in the knowledge that the Whiting Company is so infallibly in touch with all that con- cerns perfect paper — so absolutely au courant with fashion's * latest and subtlest demands and caprices, that it can be im- plicitly trusted both with the supply and with the labeling. For messages at home or far away — for happy summons or for business order — for home festival, or for state occasion — for fair maiden or for charming matron — the papers of the Whiting Company contain every grace and excellence. They are emphatically not oi the class which causes the tantalizing splutter of the pen, nor the blemishing spread of ink, spoiling the temper not only of the writer and of the receiver, but also of the letter written! Color and In Palestrina's time, color was used as a musical indication. Personality In many'sensitive minds the mention of a name calls up its color counterpart; inversely, the mention of certain colors suggests certain persons whose grace, refinement, erudition, modesty, genius, dignity, or strength, we know and feel as we know and feel the colors of the flowers and of the clouds. So, while we must yield the honorable place of standard adapta- bility and dignity that cannot err — to pure white and palest French gray, we shall always love and turn towards those delicate or rich'paper tints which grow to be inseparably as- sociated with the natures of our friends — just as we turn to and love the odor of the flowers, the note of the forest stream, the rhythmic whisper of the leaves, and the tints of the morn- ing and evening sky. l^'i^f' ''<■'' i^' hi LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 018 530 486 3 ^^ THE NAME of the Whiting Paper Company and their trade mark are guarantees of excellence. The Whiting Papers for Fine Correspondence and for Wed- ding Invitations are unequalled. All first-class stationers keep them COME of the ^ varieties of leaders among the hundreds of the Whiting Standard Papers are these : Whiting' s Westminster Vellum Woven Linen No. 1 Extra Grecian Bond Irish Linen French Organdie Wedding Papers Insist on being shown these papers at your stationer's. Use them once and you will use them always HM^^^M^^Bw"^ m^ LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 018 530 486 3 %