Prescott journal. [volume] (Prescott, Wis.) 1861-1871, 1869-02-26
A Modern Alphabet Inventor.

A few months back a paragraph in
the New York Tribune stated that lit
erary relic bad been sold in that city for
the sum of eleven hundred and thirty
dollars,-the highest price any book has
fetched in that country. 1t was a copy
of EIiot's Indian Bible, a book that no
man living can read. Eliot was Puri
tan Englishman, who emigrated to New
England on account of his religious opin-
ions, and died at Roxbury, where q
handsome memorial was erected to his
memory by his admirers.
This brought to my recollection the
labors of another ingenious mind, known
by the name of George Guess among
the people of the United States. He
was an Indian, and his name See-qao lab.
If ever a record of patient industry, un-
firing perseverance and natural ingenui-
" deserves record, it is this Eliot's BIZ
bic was in Mohegan, with the usual Ro-
man letters, with different signs to denote
the different infections of sounds. But
See quo lab invented an alphabet for the
use of his tribe. His idea originated in
the early French aud Indian wars. The
Cherokees had white prisoner, on
whose person they found a letter; to sat.
isfy his capturers, the prisoner had to
read it for their edifration. But of
course the tenor of bis reading differed
greatly from what he pretended to read
from.
The 81 talking leaf" had ever been a
mystery to these untutored minds Of the
prairie. They had long considered it n
gift of the Great Spirit, and held it in
great veneraiion. But See quo lal. then
youth, knew better; he maintained
that il was purely mans invention, and
the desire to have written alphabet for
his tribe possessed him. For long time
the idea lay dormant; the migrations of
the tribe or their predatory excursions
left him no leisure. But famed. and as
it proved, for life, the long hours of his
forced Imprisonment brought forth the
old idea. His first attempt was to gath
er all the sounds of the Cherokee tongue;
but the result was far from encouraging.
He collected above two hundred His
next difficulty was to place sign as
equivalent to q sound. Like the old
Egyptians, and probably like the first al
phabet inventors, whoever they NAV be,
he made use of hieroglyphics. lie en-
bodied pictures of birds, beasts, &c,
which approximated with the sounds.
and served best as a representation.
But the mind, before it could realize such
a category, would require an immense
amount of training. He looked over
the extensive list with some dismay, and
endeavored to modify it. He was sue
cesslul enough to abbreviate it to eighty.
six. He was able TO accomplish this, be
cause in Cherokee all sylables have a
vowel ending. An enumeration and
classification of these svllables made, and
sign for each, would complete it.
Thus there needed no distinction between
vowels and consOnants. A rather I'M
wieldy affair. no doubt; but when the
system was learned, easier to spell by
than by using Eliot's method. The long
est word Of this system contains but four
teen signs or syllables, while the longest
words of Eliot's have often over thirty.
1t took the ancient world ages before
it could entirely discard the pcture-signs
for letters. The idea of simply letters
stole on imperceptibly, and is envoloped
in inexplicable mystery. But this poor
Indian at one stroke discarded his pic
ture-signs, and invented an alphabet al
most as commodious as those of Europe
an nations. His next difficulty was to
make so many sigus dissimilar to each
other. Perhaps he might have seen
some English printed matter, for some of
his signs greatly resemble our letters.
The figure is prominently used. Some
signs are like Greek or Asiatic letters,
others like Slovenian. But they have
far different sound from their prototypes,
if such they were. The sign S sounds
like thu, NJ like Ia, aud the rest are equal
ly different. But most of them are pure
inventions. All are used over again in
different pastures, SO to speak ,-distort-
ed, inverted, or abbreviated.
His pen was nail; he wrote on bark.
Eventually (about 1929 he obtained
pen and some paper from one of those
frontier traders, but the pen was carefully
preserved as a guide to manufacture
others by. His ink he made himself
from barks. His first pupil was his
daughter.
But, like Roger Bacon, Gutenberg,
Calico, and others. his neighbors suspect
him of practising the black art Doubt
less he seldom left his hut; his mind be-
ing in his work, his time would be taken
up with it. His tribe Stunned him; but
bis inoffensive. as well as his 'pitable con-
dition, preserved him from any dire con-
sequences.
He was told that they should see the
fruits of his labors before they Judged