Article June 6, 1901 Issue

An Expert Penman

National Watchman

Rila Kittredge of Belfast, Me., champion small writer of the world, has retired from the field, leaving his record of forty-six thousand words written with a common steel pen on an ordinary postal card for ambitious microscopic penman to equal or excel. Up to two years ago he wrote a great deal, but now, being within a few months of ninety, he has given up the laborious practice of writing volumes upon small cards, his hand being less steady and his eye less bright than in his best days.

Mr. Kittredge has long been famous for his penmanship. He is a Vermonter by birth. His practice of miniature chirography began early in life, and many a time he has gone without his dinner rather than leave unfinished a piece of work.

His first serious competitive effort was made in 1887, when some one sent to the Belfast Journal a postal card upon which six hundred words had been crowded, and defied any one to beat it. A few days afterward Kittredge handed in a postal card upon which he had written one thousand words, and this being beaten he produced one with three thousand words.

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