While the letter Way is quite correctly joined to Ing, as in sign 2 in Exercise, there is also, in some instances, a much easier and more rapid manner of joining Way or Whay to N and to some other letters. This is by running the letter Way into the letter to which it is joined, without showing point of juncture, as in signs 1, 7, 8, etc. in Exercise, forming what is known as the Way or Whay hook, it indicating the sound of Whay as well. The hook, it will be noticed, is always shaded upon the commencing stroke and accommodates itself to the shape of the main letter to which' it is joined, being, therefore, joined to the full-sized letters L, M, etc, in the most convenient manner, which though in the case of L, (sign 9), makes the hook somewhat resemble U, yet it will never be mistaken to be any other character than what it is, for the reason that U would not be written backwards, as the Way and Whay hook is in these cases. The letter Whay can also be substituted for Way, to facilitate junctures, as in signs 3 to 5 in Exercise.

This Way or Whay hook is what is known as a beginning hook, because it is placed at the beginning of . outlines. There are other beginning hooks of still more value as abbreviating principles, but which, for special reasons, are best classed as double, triple and quadruple consonants. Below we explain the,

Double Consonants.. - A small beginning hook, written on the left side of the upright and slanting straight characters, P, B, T, D, etc., and on the under side of the horizontal ones, K, Gay, etc., indicates the addition of R to the full-sized consonants to which it is joined. See signs 11, 13, 15, 17, 19, 21 and 50 in Exercise. A similar hook, also beginning outlines, but written on the upper side of horizontal and right side of upright straight characters, adds L to the full-sized consonants to which it is joined. See signs numbered 12, 14, 16, 18, 20 and 49 in Exercise. Although, in writing these combinations, which are denominated the Per and Pel series of Double Consonants, the. signs are commenced at the hooks, yet, in reading them, the Lor R hook, as the case may be, is read after the consonant to which it is joined. These combinations must not be called p-r, p-1, etc., but as one sound, Per, Pel, etc.

While these L and R hooks are comparatively easily added to straight letters, such is not entirely the case with the curved consonants. For instance, though the L hook may readily be added to Ith, as in sign 38 in Exercise, yet it would be very awkward to add an R hook to Ith. Similarly with other curves. We can add an L hook to an F, as in sign 34. but not an R hook conveniently. We can add an R hook to V, sign 36; to long S, sign 40; or to Ish, sign 42; but we cannot conveniently add an L hook to V, long S or Ish. We therefore employ this rule: Add the beginning hooks to curved letters the same way as to the straight letters, when convenient; when not convenient, shade the curved letters to indicate the hook instead of writing the hook. This shading would indicate the addition of R to F, Ith and L, signs 35, 39 and 44; and would add L to V or Ish, signs 37 and 43. That is, the shading indicates the hook letter that cannot be easily attached.

The L hook is not added to L, and it cannot be added to long-Z, nor should long-S be thickened to indicate L, because thickening long-S would make it look like a long-Z.

It will be seen, by reference to signs 52, 53 and 54, that the L is indicated to Ish in two ways, due to the fact that the sign Ish may be written either upwards or downwards in junctures with other full sized characters, though, when alone, it is only written downward. On one plan, signs 52 and 53, the hook, being a beginning one, is, of course, joined at the bottom of the letter, Ish therein being written upwards and begun at the lower end, the hook being attached the same as to K in sign 51. In the outlines in signs 52 and 53, is also another full-sized letter - Ing in 52 and F in 53 - which show the direction in which the Ish is written, but, where the only full sized letter written is Ish, then it would be impossible to tell in which direction Ish is written unless we adhere to the rule to write Ish downwards always when it is written alone, and in such case we must shade Ish to indicate the addition of L, as in sign 43; also whenever Ish is written downwards, no matter how many letters we attach to it, as in she/lac, sign 54.

The R hook is added to M and the L hook to N on the most convenient side of those two letters, which would be the same sides as they would be added to straight letters. Compare sign 45 with sign 13 in Exercise and sign 47 with sign 51. To add L to M and R to N, we thicken M or N and retain the same hooks, as in signs 46 and 48 in Exercise. This is done because, if we did not retain the hooks, the thickening of M and N would cause them to be mistaken for Mb or Mp and Ing. Therefore, the student need entertain no fear that sign 46 will ever be mistaken for Mbr, Mpr, Mbl, or sign 48 for Ingr, or Ingl, for the hooks R or L are never added to Ing, nor Emp, nor are they intended to be added to any of the small characters of the Visible Alphabet.

Signs 47, 48, 49, 51, etc., need not be, by the careful pupil, confused with Way n, Way-ing, Way-r, etc., as the latter are written as in signs 1, 2, 7, 4, etc., with either a shaded hook or letter Way or Whay.

Rarer, sign 33, is simply the word rare, with another R added to it.

Although the Per and Pel series of double consonants should be ordinarily pronounced as though the invisible vowel E existed between the P and L or P and R, etc., yet this is done merely for the sake of appreciating the double character of their consonants, for any other vowel may, at times, occur between the P-l and P-r, etc., as with chair, sign 19. Furthermore, these double consonants, Per, Fel, etc., may not possess any vowel sound between them, but indicate it after them, as with sign 21, in which the invisible vowel sound Oo follows the double consonant Dr. When, however, there are two separate vowel sounds in a word, as in the two-syllabled word dowry (spelled phono-graphically d-ow-re), the hook R should not be employed, the consonants of the word being written out in full, as in sign 22, in order to clearly indicate the presence of two vowel sounds.