The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1858-12-25
A Young Illinois Linguist.


A correspondent of the New Yory zr'
dune furnishes the following interesting &C
count Of tho linguistic studies Of a youn
| Illinoisan;
Who has not heard of Castell of tn
"Heptaglottom of Dengeon Of All.bere
the master Of seventeen languages-of Bur
ritt, the mastor of forty--and of Al-Farabi
the master Of seventy Far less renowned
than those, but not less laborious, is a youn;
man who now YES at Mount Vernon, il
tie State Of Illinois. His name is A. c
Johnson. The history Of his labors is n
follows:
At the age of ten he took foncy for the
study Of Latin. He soon found, and i, was
all he could find, Andrews & Stoddard',
very small grammar, which he borrowed
and kept long enough to master most Of his
brief lessons. He then had to return this
and he resolved te have one Of his own
He had 90 cents. He had found in the road
at different times dime aud half-dime,
and relative had given him Mexican bit;
neighbor, knowing, knowing his ambition
and his lack of means. showed him a side OF
old bacon, very rusty, and worm. eaten on
the edges, Of which he made him present.
A. G. took it, trlnmed it, secured and sun.
ned it, and sold it for 62t cents. THIS Just
enabled him to buy Anthon's Latin Lessons,
and he was rich enough. At every leisure
moment, by day or night, he was poring
over his treasure, until he had almost com
mtted the whole to memory. A friend then
allowed him the use of Andrews Latin Read
er; and after he had finished this, an elder
brother presented him the EpH. Sac. Hit.
and Iiri Romes After this he had little
difficulty in procuring and reading Caesar,
Ovid, Cicero, Sallust, Horace, and "Qniqarn
Trsctatus Logicae-Londen,l 1853"
In the meantime he had commenced the
study of Greek. His father owned Wesley's
works, and among them was a Greek Gram
mar. This was A. C.'s starting point, and
few boys will consider it pleasant one
But better luck awaited him. lie found
and borrowed much larger work by S T.
d., print, Boston, 1909. Before he had fin
ished this he borrowed Valpcy, and there
completed his knowledge Of Greek Grammar
Aft-r borrowing and reading "An,hon's ia.
cOb's Reader, he happened to meet an op-
portunity to buy for few cents-learned
works do not sell well in the Wes,-a Greek
Delectus, Greek Exercises, Gracca Minsra,
Greek Testament, Nenephon, Homer and
Lexicon.
Long before he had finished these, he had
undertaken the Hebrew His father owned
a Hebrew Grammar by the Rev. Martin
Ruter. which il was no difficult task to com
NIT 10 memory, and larger work entitled
"Wiison's Introduction" These employed
him for nearly year, after which he bought
Hebrew B bie, and was in all his glory"
Spassh came next. lie found among his
iathers S old papers a large number of Con
gressionai documents, containing the CORES
poudence OF the Secretary Of State with the
Spanish and Mexican Ministers. The let
tiers Of the Ministers were in the original
Spanish, accompanied by literal transla-
ton. 4. c. studied these until he could
read the Spanish alone with ease, or else
had the whole by hoart he scarcely knew
which. But lie now had the good fortune
to borrow a Spanish Grammar, and eageraly
did he dcvour it. He then got "A Testament
which soldier pocketed in Mexico, also
prayer book and Ortrgas's Poems, all OF
which he read, but as ne had no dictionary,
he had TO note down the words whose mean
ing he could not decph r, until he should
find them ia a construction that would throw
light upon them.
Then came French For this 4. C. had
a pretty good beginning IN Wanostrocht,
which he studied and rc-studcd carfully.-
Then withour a dictionary, he began to read
Telemnque, book he had borrowed, as us
ual. He noted the difficult words, as in
Spanish, till he could render literally every
sentence in the volume. lie then bought
for fifty cents a French Testament, French
Arithmetic, French Guide and Perrins Ia
bles, which he read with infinite gusto also
Racine and the Je:f Errant
He had already turned his attention to
he German. His only accessible text books
were Jayne's Nediscinischer Kalendar for a
reader, and Jayne's Medical Almanac for a
dictionary. They contain about sixty pa
ges OF matter not the most interesting, but
\. c. ponder them over day after day,
week after week. till he could translate llter-
ally every sentance in the Calendar. lie
then happened to find a copy of Oilendorf,
which he Immediately borrowed. At last
he succeeded in purchasing German Bible,
Dutch Reformed Hymn Book, etc, which
he read with the utmost satisfaction.
But grow tedious l have said enough
to convey an idea Of his zeal. iu ustry, pa
tience and perseverance. BY means like
those have Noticed, he has become acquain-
ted with dozen laBguaoes-La,in, Greek,
Hebrew. Spanish, French, German. Italian,
Dutch. Danish, Swoeden, Russian, besides
storing in SPLENDID memory the choice
gems from 500 volumes Of miscellaneous
reading. lie is quiet. retiring, taciturn, SOL
emn but writes great deal, and many of
his writings are humorous. If Elihu Bur
ritt deserves praise for acquiring languages
in Massachusetts,, surrounded with books
and having access to town library, ought
not young farmers boy, in the half sub
dued wilderness of the far West, to enjoy a
like reward for similar, if not equal labors: !:
BARTON SMITH,