imperfect,
clumsy language which he possesses in common with every minister of
state and public schoolboy, he proceeds to describe what he sees in a
hundred lines, when with two or three strokes of the pen he might have
expressed his meaning better pictorially. I have used these words
before, but they apply with redoubled force at the present time. The
fact is, that with the means now at command for reproducing any lines
drawn or written, the correspondent is not thoroughly equipped if he
cannot send them as suggested, by telegraph or by letter. It is all a
matter of education, and the newspaper reporter of the future will not
be considered complete unless he is able to express himself, to some
extent, pictorially as well as verbally. Then, and not till then, will
our complicated language be rescued from many obscurities, by the aid of
lines other than verbal.[5]

In nearly every city, town, or place there is some feature,
architectural or natural, which gives character to it, and it would add
greatly to the interest of letters from abroad if they were headed with
a little outline sketch, or indication of the principal objects. This is
seldom done, because the art of looking at things, and the power of
putting them down simply in a few lines, has not been cultivated and is
not given to many.

Two things are principally necessary to attain this end--

[Illustration: A STUDY IN PERSPECTIVE. (HUME NISBET.)

A. Standpoint. B. Point of Sight. C. Horizontal line. D. Vanishing
lines. E. Point of distance. F. Vanishing lines of distance. G. Line
of sight.]

1. The education of hand and eye and a knowledge of perspective, to be
imparted to every schoolboy, no matter what his profession or occupation
is likely to be.

2. The education of the public to read aright this new language (new to
most people), the "shorthand of pictorial art."

The popular theory amongst editors and publishers is that the public
would not care for information presented to them in this way--that they
"would not understand it and would not buy it." Sketches of the kind
indicated have never been fairly tried in England; but they are
increasing in number every day, and the time is not far distant when we
shall look back upon the present system with considerable amusement and
on a book or a newspaper which is not illustrated as an incomplete
production. The number of illustrations produced and consumed daily in
the printing press is enormous