Litchfield enquirer., 1875-05-20


 The contestants seated themselves on 1 the platform and MT. Twichell called upon Mir. Samuel l.. Clemens Mark Twain1 for few preliminary remarks. The latter mounted the platform beside the pulpit and spoke as follows:
 LADIES AND GENrLEMEN-I have been honored with the office of introducing these approaching orthographical solem- l mites with few remarks: The temper ance crusade swept the land some time ago-that is, that vast portion of the land where it was needed-but it skipped Hart ford. Now comes this new spelling epi- | demic, and this time aOe are stricken. So suppose we needed the affliction. I don't say we needed it, for don't see any use i'll spelling word right-and never did. I mean I don't see any use of having uniform and arbitrary way of spelling words. We might as we'll make all clothes alike and cook all dishes alike. Sameness is tiresome; variety is pleasing. have a correspondent whose letters are always a refreshment to me, there is such breezy unfettered originality about his orthogra- phy. He always spells Kow with a large K. Now that is just as good as to spell it with small one. It is better. It gives the imagination a broader field, wider scope. It suggests to the mind grand, vague, impressive, new kind of a COW. Su- perb effects can be produced by variegated spelling. Now there is Blind Tom, the musical prodigy. He always spells a word according to the sound that is car ried to his ear. And he is an enthusiast ill orthographY. When you give him q word, he shouts it outputs all his soul into it. once heard him called upon to spell orang. outang before an audience. He said, 70, Tang, orang, ger, ger, oranger, tang, tang, orangertangp Now l body can respect an orang-outang that spells his name in a vigorous way like that. But the feeble dictionary makes a mere kitten of him. In the old times peo- pie spelled just as they pleased. That was the right idea. You had two chances at a stranger then. You knew a strong man from weak ono by his iron-clad spelling, and his handwriting helped you to verify your verdict
 Some people have an idea that correct spelling can be t0oght-and taught to anybody. That Is a mistake. The spelling faculty is born in Q man, like poetry, mu- sic, and art. It is gift; 1t is talent. People who have this gift in high degree only need to see word once in print, and itis forever photographed upon their nem- ory. They can not forget it. People who haven't 1t must be content to spell more or less ike-like thunder-and expect to splinter the dictionary wherever their or- biographical lightning happens to strike. There are IA. 900 words Tn the unabridged dictionary. know a lady who can spell only 180 of them right. She steers clear of all the rest. She can't learn any more. So her letters always consist of those con- stantly recurring 180 words. Now and then, when she finds herself obliged to write upon subject which necessitates the use of some other words, she-well, she don't write on that subject. have q relative Tn New York who is almost sub- Timely gifted. She can't spell 0ny word right. There Is game called Verbarium. A dozen people are each provided with q 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 be- ginning with the initial letter of that word. Upon one occasion the word chos- en was cofferdam. When time was called everybody had built from five to twenty words except this young lady. She only moment and then said, "Why there is no
 
 paper. To the eternal honor of that un- | inspired, unconscious, sublimely inde- l pendent soul be it said, she had spelt that word ''caffp' If anybody here can spell calf any more sensibly than that, let him step to the front and take his milk.
 Two prizes are offered for this evenings contest, one for the speller that holds out longest, and one for the speller that falls first. The first prize is Q choice between Guizot's History of France, octave vol tunes, Illustrated by De Neuvill; the Lon- don Art Journal for 1875, profusely illus trated with wood and steel; or nosegay, curiously painted upon slate-which pie l ture is burned into the slate, and the sur | face afterwards beautifully polished. This | ingenious sort of art is the invention of a New England lady. You can see fine specimens of it at Mir. Glazier's. I have been instructed not to reveal just yet what the prize is which is to be given to that untrammeled spirit who shall suc- ceed in sitting down first. The insurreo- l ton will now begin.
 Mir. Iwichen then read the rules gov erning the match, Mir. J. s. Tryon. Jr.. | giving out the words for Mir. William IL. Cushing, who had prepared the list. Theo- dore Lyman and Miss Kate Burbank were referees. Judge Carpenter was the frst l CONCLUDED ON FOURTH PAGE