Buchanan County bulletin. [volume] (Independence, Iowa) 1869-1891, 1873-02-07
Ueathers Column.
w. j. KELSEY, EDITOR.
Orthogrnphy.

photography.
Spelling in school perhaps claims the
precedence Of all subjects demanding par.
tcular attention As soon rs the pupil
has learned the names Of the letters, he
must be occupied by their varied COM
binations, which, in our language, are
exceedingly irregular, and srcnder this
department Of the pupils education cx-
tremely difficult The same letter has
not only different sounds, but these diff
fcrcnt sounds are expressed by very diff
fcrent letters.
1t is wonderfully amusing in looking
up the etymology of the word ortrogra-
ply, to find that one of the Greek words
from which it is derived, orthos, means
straight, direct, and then try to think
that the straight way to spell yot is
va hit, and tizic, if straighHy spelled,
is p-h thistle Deliver me from know
ing what crooked is if those are cxcmpli-
fications of the meaning of the word
straight. The FIVE vowels should he call
ed the five harloquins, for these five let
tiers have twenty-nina different sounds.
But the difficulty Of their number is
nothing compared with their masquerade
ing. In almost every line we read these
letters rcappcar several times; but how
ever short their absence, they rc-enter in
a changed dress Old Protcus is held as
a proverb Of changableness, but compar-
ed with these he was no turn coat but q
staid uniform parsonage. If you would
conceive of Il child's or II foreigners diff
Guilty in the right soul DIS to the alphabet
ic characters which he finds in words,
suppose any five articles Of your dress or
furniture which you have most frequent
occasion to use or to wear, to be liable
to change into twcnty-ninc other articles
Of furniture or dress, the moment you
touch them, and that this change were
not only arbitrary but wanton, and you
have some idea of the difficulty which
must meet him at every stage in his pro
gress.
But the same letter not only puzzels US
with its multiplicity Of sounds, but differ
cnt letters have the same sound, and com
binations of letters assume the sound of
individual letters, while they mock us by
playing back and forth with the facility
and malignancy of Evil Spirits. There
are eight letters and combinations of let
tiers which have the first sound of a, and
in Il like number of combinations we find
the long sound ofe.
The long sound of enters into nc
less than fourteen combinations, and in
these different sounds appears the famous
ough as in dough, cough, hough, though
thought, through, thorough, tough" and
this combination tlat the celebrated
couplet was formed:
Though the tough cough and hiccough plow me
through,
! O'er life's dark Tough still my way pursued
WHO will say that to acquire the habi,
of correctly spelling our language does
not require much time and careful attcn
ton 1t is impossible to reduce these
| anomalies however much we may desire
to do so. The labor Of acquiring the or.
| biography of our language must neces
sarlly be great, and continue SO. Eyer-
cises in the straight" art will necessari.
ly occupy the time of every instructor
largely, and the best mode of conduct ing
them will demand the most careful atten-
ton. But when photographers who en-
| Joy the best means for information dis
agree, how are learners to know what is
correct photography? Permit me TO
state that the IL umbcr OF words with re-
gard to which there is not uniformity is
not large. Our language is so largely a
dcrivatiye one, that many words can only
be spelled by studying their particular
formation while there arc rules of spell
ing applicable to pure English words
which rarely lead astray. AS evidence
of the above, note the difficulty in spell
ing the words found in the following non,
sensical sentence which the writer of this
pronounced to class Of one hundred and
twenty-five candidates for certificates ut
an institute held in an adjoining county
with reward of five dollars to the sue
ccssful competitor
Il witnessed the unparalleled embar-
rassment Of Il harassad peddler attempt
ing to gauge the symmetry Of peeled on
ion which sibyl had stabbed with pom
lard regardless of the innuendocs Of lilies
of carnelian hue"
None of them were successful Fifty
four missed the word pcddler, and thirty
seven the word lilies. l have repeatedly
pronounced it to my y classes since with
like result Who is u g1od spelcr?
Jcsup, Feb. 9th, 1878.