Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1855-05-24
Chr News GIeaner
NOTES AND COMMENTS.

ven made, we understand, between Mr. Dun n,
'rcther-in-law and Executor of the late Gov.
anne, and E. j. Bates, Abe enterprising Marble
Dealer OF Mortified, for the erection of a Mon
umcnt' of the best Vermont Marble, six feet
square at the base, and sixteen feet high to the
governors memory. 1t were we'll, perhaps,
thus to mark the spot of that remarkable mans
grave, that overlooks SO much of the fruits of
his enterprise but it should only serve aa an
index to direct the eye to his other and greater
Monument, the Vermont Central Railroad,
which, IRON inception to completion SO clearly
owes Its existence to his talent and energy and
which should, and ever will, be associated with
his name by benefited people, .~
TIE THMBLE SuPERcEDED.-We have recently
had the qualification of inspecting, and noting
the working of Robbins Patent Sewing Ma
chine. with Ropers Improvement, which has
recently been purchased and put in operation by
Maj. R. R. Rikcr, at his excellent and we'll
known Tailoring Establishment on Main Street.
1t is a small butneat piece of machinery, wholly
metallic, turned by the foot, like an old fash
Toned foot wheel, and works to a charm-doing
the work of four ordinary hands, and sewing
better and stronger than can be done by the
common method through the use of the needle
and thimble. 1t looks as if the DAYS of the
me-honored thimble were numbered. or at least
soon hereafter to be restricted to the more igno-
bic use Of patching and mending.
A LESSON FOR Parents. or the 732 conycts
now in the New York State Prison at Auburn,
5l7. 1t has been ascertained, were never instruc-
ted in any trade or calling whereby to gain
subsistence Here is lesson to prompt parents
to cause their chldren-their sons especially
to learn some trade or regular business, which
speaks louder than thousand sermons.
AN OREGON PRoDUcT.-Our old friend, John
o, Waterman, now Judge Waterman, says, in
his paper. the Oregon Times, that a neighbor
of his, DR.. Prcttyman, brought for his inspec-
ton, this Spring, a beet, the product of the
Doctor 5 garden last season, two and half feet
long, two feet in circumference, and weighing
twenty poundsand nine ounces Where, on the
face of the broad earth, was that beet ever
beaten s-.... ....s-.-s. ....t
WEBSTER S DicrIoNARY.-For more than three
fourths of a century, the undisputed palm in
English Lcxicography was, by scholars, uniyer-
sally conceded to DR.. Samuel johnson. In lisa
he published his great English Dictionary,
which was justly considered, at the time, mon
ument Of learning and research, us little time,
comparatively, as the author had devoted to it,
and as much AS his labors had been interrupted
by other literary avocations, TO which he was
0 compelled to resort for livelihood. And his
+ work continued. as imperfect as it was, to DO
c the standard for all purposes up to about 1915,
and for orthography, etymology and definitions,
more than twenty years longer, the full use of
g the work having been virtually prolonged by
/ Walker, in his Pronouncing Dictionary
But in the meanwhile, and as early as 1888,
: there had been another competent and most Ia
: borious scholar, who, having begun to devote his
! life to the study of the different languages,
: which form the basis of the English tongue, and
who, having perceived that his distinguished
predecessors had by fully beat the
$ ample field, and that, consequently. perfect
e Dictionary of the English language was still
9 wanting, conceived the project of devoting his
d energies exclusively to the accomplishment of
that great literary desideratum That man was
= our own, American, Noah Webster. And from
That date to 1928, a period of almost half GEN.
fury, he almost exclusively and constantly, by
study and research, in this country and among
II the libraries of Europe, applied all the powers
/ of bis acute, pathological mind to the producing,
u arranging revising and perfecting of the great
Ii performance on hand and the result was the
L publication, in 1928, for the first time, of his
" American Dictionary, in this country and En-
i gland, and, in 1910, of second and revised ed-
'e ton, with the addition of several thousand
y, 70 words to the vocabulary, and with many other
Il important improvements, all which made work
which was soon allowed to establish Mr.. Web
l. sters reputation, wherever English scholars
id were to be found, as tho greatest photographer
ct of the age But, as superior as the work then
g was it had not then, by any means. attained to
Is the completeness which constitutes its present
o, claims on the public. In 1913, Mr.. Webster's
b. labors ceased in death. But his son-in-law,
u Prof Goodrich, assisted by an able corps of as
er sistants, took up the work, and after spend
ar ing three years upon it, and adding many thou
" sand words more, consisting of the definition Of
e. terms of art, &C.. which had not before been in
re troduced into that, or any other work of the
as kind, brought out, in 1913, the superb Crown
It. Quarto of 1852 pages, which is now in use.
Such is the history of Webster's Dictionary,
10 "A work which received the unqualified COM
is mendaton of Daniel Webster and twenty-nine
Is others of the o. S. Senate large proportion of
&c the Members of Congress, the Presidents of all
" our principal Colleges, and Lord Brougham and
y the most eminent scholars in. Great Britain, as
MS the best and most complete Dictionary of the
~ English Language ever published.
NJ As for ourself, after having compared it with
m all other works Of the kind we have never had but
les one opinion and that is of its decided superior
Oh ity over everything extant unhcsitatngly max
a. ing it our standard in all we have written and
we confess our surprise to have seem as we have
49, within the past year or two, any serious attempt
ne to dsr-rage that great work for the purpose of
Ia introducing another to be claimed as better
'g standard. But we think the publishers, who,
d. we believe, are G. c. Merriam, of Springfield,
na Mass have little to fear thu ths taste and dis.
a. cernment of the literary public will very soon
I'll suffer any such displacement of q work Of which