The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1875-05-20
MARK TWAIN.
Hi. views OH Orthography.

There was spelling match at Hartford
on Wednesday evening, and Mr.. Samuel
l.. Clemens Mark Twain being called
on, spoke us follows;
LADIES AND g ENTLEMEN-lh have been
honorcd with the Office of Introducing
these solemuitics with few remarks. The
temperance crusade swept the land some
time ago, that is, the vast portion of the
land where il was needed, but /, skipped
Hartford. Now come, this new spelling
epidemic. and this time me are stricken
So | suppose We needed the at.
fiction. | don't say We needed ii, for |
don see any use in spelling Il word right,
and never did. | mean | don't see any
use IN having uniform and arbitrary
way of spelling words. We might Us
well make all clothes alike and cook all
dishes alike. Samenrss is tiresomc;
variety Is pleasing. have corresp"n-
dent whose letters are always refresh
ment to me, there is such IL breezy, I'M
fettcred originality about his ortho-
graphy. lie always spells kow
with large X. Now that is
Just Us good As TO spell it
with small one. 1t Is better. 1t gives
the imagination broader field, a wider
scope. 1t suggests to the mind Il grand,
vague, impressive, new kind of COW.
superb effects can be produced BY yarir-
gated spelling. Now there Is Blind
Tom. the musical prodigy. He always
spells word according to the sound that
is carried to his ear. And lie is an en-
thu,iastic in photography. When YOU
1--WE him word he shouts il out-put-
all his soul into it, l once heard him
called upon to spell orang outang before
an audience lie said, go, a.n-g-g-e.r
ger, Granger, ta-n-g, tang; Granger
tangm Now II body can respect an
orang. outang that spells hIs name in Il
vigorou, way like that. But the feeble
dictionary makes mere kitten OF him.
in the old times people just spelled ~
they pleased. That was the right idea.
You had two chances al u stranger then.
You know strong man from weak
one by his iron-clad spelling and his
haud-writing.helped YOU to verify your
verdict. Some people have all idea that
correct spelling can be taught
and taught to anybody. That
!, "A mistake. The spelling
faculty is born in man. ike poetry,
music ind art. 1t Is gift; it Is a talent.
People who have this gift III Il high de-
grcc only need to see word once in
print and it is forever photographed on
Their memory. They cannot forget 1t.
People who haunt it must be content to
spell more or less like-lil,c thundrr-and
expect to splinter the dictionary where
ever their photographed lighting hap
pens to strike.
There are lli,000 words in the una
bridged dictionary. ] know lady who
can spell only $50 of them right. She
steers clear of all the rest She can t
learn any more. So her letters always
consists of those constantly recurring $50
words. Now and then. when she finds
herself obliged to write upon & subject
which neces- itates the use of some other
words. ,hc-wrll, she don't writ" on that
subject. | have Il relative in New York
who is almost sublimely gifted. She can
spell any word right. There is q game
called Varbarium. \ dozen people are
each provided with sheet Of paper, across
the top of which is written long word,
like kaleidoscopical, or something like
that, and the game Is to see who can
make UP the most words out Of that in
three minutes, always beginning with
the initial letter OF the word.
Upon one occasion the word
chosen Was cotier-dam. When time was
called everybody had built from five to
twenty words except this young lady.
She only had one word-calf We all
studied moment and then said. why.
there Is no a in cotler-damw Then We
examined her paper. To the eternal
honor of that uninSpircd, unconscious
sublimely independent soul be it said, .h,
had spelled that word "catf r. Ifany o.
here can spell calf any more scnsibly thar
that, let him step to the front and take
hi, milk. The Instruction will now
begin.