Marshall County Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1856-1878, 1875-03-18
THE NAN WHO MADE THE SPELL
ING-BOOK and DICTIONARY

Inc reCpra OF the life and labOrS OF
Noah Webster is an entertaining tale,
as all narratives of the struggles
of American republicans during the
infancy of the republic are to us
to-day; and it is certainly as instructive
as any one of the fables in the old spell
ing book. 1t is entertaining, because it
recalls wildly to the readers mind the
exciting and picturesque times of the
Revolutionary war and the succeeding
years of confusion; and it is instructive
because it teaches quite as forcibly as
any work of fiction with an appended
moral, that perseverance, sobriety, cour-
age and education are the conditions of
honest success
Noah Webster was a representative
American republican. While he was
growing boy he was imbued with the
principles which governed the founders
of our country. While he was at col
lege the war of the Revolution was be-
gum He left his books and shouldered
musket. When he had done what he
could as a soldier, he returned to his
studies, and completed his college edu-
cation as the smoke of battle rolled away
from the field and discovered TO the
astonished world the young republic
victorious. He was not rich, and he had
to earn the money to pay for his tuition.
All these things combined to make
Webster democrat of a rigid stamp.
He had helped to throw off from his
countrymen the chains of British rule.
When he left college he looked about
him for some useful occupation, and it
occurred to him that he could make
America still more independent. Per
haps he was too democratic in this.
Some people thought that, in counseling
the disuse of English books and English
methods of education, Webster was adj
vising his countrymen to cut off their
noses to spite their faces, as good old
proverb (of the kind that DIR. Franklin
liked says so forcibly. Talking of Dr..
Franklin reminds us that that CHEEKY old
republican was one of Webster's truest
friends and strongest supporters. In
1888, when the echo of the last gun of
the Revolution had scarcely died away,
Webster's Spelling Book was given to
the public. Who does not know Web
ster's Spelling Book? When we con-
slider that so, 600, 900 Of copies of it have
been sold, and that it is now selling at
the rate of million copies year, it
seems probable that every one knows it.
Unfortunately, the chief merit of Web
ster's Spelling Book, In the opinion of
great many sensible persons, was its
authors originality and industry. The
spelling book, they thought, taught
persons how not to spell Most of the
boys and girls who studied it had to I'M
learn part of it taughtthem, when they
became men and women But whether
or not we spell theater-t-e-r, ter Wa
must revere the memory of the man who
made the spellingbook and afterwards
gave his life to the dictionary. We need
not accept Webster's peculiar opinions
of orthography and lexicogaphy to APP
preciate his character as man and his
indornitable energy. We still look upon
the old spelling-book with reverence
When, together with the English reader,
an arithmetic, and an exceedingly small
geography, it constituted our whole
school library, there was feeling of awe
mingled with our reverence for it. Many
a mans spelling lesson was the greatest
stumbling block of the daily Journey dur
ing the early years of his life's pilgrim
age. Then the uncompromising morality
of the reading matter in Webster's Spell
ing-Book made him feel prematurely that
he was very wicked. He can look back
now into the old school-room, through
the open window that faced the lane, and
see the master at his desk With his ferule
beside him, and the diminutive lad stand
ing in corner, the target for furtive vol
leys of paper pellets from hisschoolmates,
with the dog-eared speling-book in his
shands and weeping over his tsssk.-Neac
York Eceniug Post.
Old SONGS.