Balzac as a Handwriting Expert

Balzac, the famous French writer, was a man of great talent. But he himself was proud of his ability to tell a person’s character by his or her handwriting. (1) He often told his friends that he could tell anybody's character exactly by his handwriting.

One day a woman friend brought him a young boy’s exercise book. (2) She said that she wanted to know what Balzac thought of the boy’s character.

Balzac studied the handwriting carefully for a few minutes. (3) The woman, however told him that the boy was not her son and that he might tell her the truth.

“All right”, said Balzac. “I will tell you the truth”. (4) And he said that the boy was a bad, lazy fellow.

“It is very strange”, said the woman smiling, “this is a page from your own exercise-book which you used when you were a boy”.

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Three young men arrived in New York for a holiday. They had reserved a room on the 45^th floor of a big hotel.

The receptionist gave them the key to their room after they had filled in the forms.

In the evening they went to the theatre and came back very late. “I’m sorry”, said the hotel clerk, “but our lifts don’t work tonight. We can make beds for you in the hall”. “No”, answered one of the young men. “We’ll go up to our room. “Then he said to his friends. “On our way to the room I’ll tell you some jokes. Andy will sing some songs and Peter will tell us some sad stories. So the time will fly fast”. They began to walk up: Tom told them a few jokes. Andy sang some songs. At last they came to the thirty-forth floor. One of them said: “Now, Peter, it’s your turn to tell us a long sad story”. “Oh, I have a very sad story to tell you. We’ve left the key to our room in the hall”, answered Peter.