A way to save paper - write criss-cross letters
By Judy Evans
@JudyEv (384473)
Rockingham, Australia
July 12, 2026 8:00am CST
The title is tongue in cheek. I'm not advocating it for today's letter-writers.
A story which caught my eye today was about criss-cross letters.
Criss-cross letters, also known as cross-hatching or cross-writing, were common way back, when paper was sometimes were hard to get and postage was gauged on weight so one page would be a lot cheaper to send than two pages.
A letter would be written in the normal way then the page would be turned 90 degrees and the writing would then be carried on across the previous writing. Occasionally, a third ‘page’ could be added by writing on a slant. While obviously pretty hard to decipher, I guess it served a purpose.
You can read more about it here. A lady has inherited such a letter which was written in 1879:
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-01-22/criss-crossed-letter-mystery/103362666
10 people like this
10 responses
@teamfreak16 (44235)
• Denver, Colorado
1h
I remember learning about this when I was younger, but I never tried doing it myself.
@LooeyVille (45)
• United States
2h
It seems like we found some of those in old documents in our family's history.
@BarBaraPrz (52001)
• St. Catharines, Ontario
3h
They didn't think to write on the back of the page?
