Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1875-06-19

WHOLE MOI 1866.
MARX TWAIN ON SPELLING.

MARX TWAIN ON SPELLING. s
There was o spelling match at the
Asylum Hill Congregational Church,
Hartford, Connecticut, recently, and
Mr.. Samuel Z. Clemens MARX Twain)
being called upon for few preliminary
remarks, spoke as follows: ,sdgf
Ladies and gentlemen II have been
honored with the Office Of introducing
these approaching orthographical solsm- Z.
mites with O. few renarks.si The temper
ance crusade swept the land some tina
ago--that is, that vast portion OF the
land where it was needed-bu it
skipped Hartford. Now comes this new
spelling epidemic, and this time we are
stricken. So I suppose we needed the
afdiction. / don't say, we needed it,
for | don't see any use in spelling .
word right, and never dids I mean r.
don't see any use in having uniform
4 and arbitrary way of spelling words
We might,as well make all clothes alike.
Sameness 10 tiresoma;o variety is pleas
ing. / have correspondent whose
letters are always refreshment to me,
there is such a breezy unfettefea origin
ality about his orthography. He air,
was spells Kow with large X. Now
that, is Just as good as to spell it with
small one. Tt is better. 1t gives aae
imagination broader field, d wider
scope. 1t suggests to the mind grand,
vague, impressive, new kind OF COW.
Superb effects can be produced By /.
variegated spelling. Now, there is
blind Tom, the musical prodigy. He
always spells word according to the
/ sound that is carried to his ear. And
he is enthusiastic in. photography.
When you give him o word, he shouts
it outputs all his soul into it. once
heard him called upon to spell orang-
| ontang before an audience. He said,
O-r-a-n-g, orang, ger, ger, Granger,
tang, tang, orang-gertang! Now, q
body can respect an orang-outang that
spells his name in vigorous way like
that. But the feeble dictionary makes
a mere kitten of him.. In the aold
times people spelled just as they pleased.
That was the right idea. You had two
chances at stranger then. You Knew
q strong man from o weak one by his
iron-clad spelling, and his handwriting
helped you to verify your verdict. easlss
Some people have an idea that corr.
rect spelling can be taught-and taught
to anybody. This is mistake. The
spelling faculty is born in man, like
poetry, music and art. 1t is gift; it
is talent. People who have this talent
in high degree only need to see
word once in print, and it is forever
photographed upon their memory.
They cannot forget il. People who
haven't it must be content to spell more
or less like like thunder--apd expect
to splinter the dictionary wherever their
photographed lightning happens to
strike. There are 113 900 words in the
unabridged dictionary. / know q lady
who can spell only $50 of them right.
She steers clear of the rest. She don't
learn any more. So her letters always
consist of these constantly recurring
ren words, Nov md then, VIXEN she
finds herself obliged TO write upon sub
iects which necessitate the use of some
other words, she--well, don't write on
that subject. o.. a,t, aa ,,s. "a
have relative in New York who is
almost sublimely gifted. She cannot
spell any 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 kaleidoscopal, or some
thing like that, and the game is to see
who can make the most words oct of
that in three minutes, always beginning
with the initial letter of that, word
Upon one occasion the word was Golfer,
dam. When time was called everybody
had built from five to twenty words
except this young lady. She only had
one word--caf. We all studied q mo-
ment and then said, s Why, there is no
L in cofferdam." Then wa examined
her paper. To the eternal horror, OF
that uninspired, unconscious, sublmeiy
independent soul be il said, she had
spelled the word :. caffp' II anybody
here can spell calf any more sensibly
than that, let him step to the front and
take his milk. The insurrection will
now begin. aa.s,..la ,s ~
SoLAcE FOR You've N.-Cornelius
Vanderbilt began life with an old pi-
rogue, running between Staten Island
and New York city, carrying garden
stuff to market. With two or three
thousand dollars raised from that
source he entered upon steadily IN.
creasing enterprises, until he amassed
the enormous sum of $50, ,O0O, 200.
/ A. T. Stewart first bought o few iaces
at auction, and opened his way 70 sl,e-
cess in a dingylittle shop in Broadways
near the site of his present Wholesale
establishment. Years OF rigid honesty,
shrewd management. and wisdom II
things both great and small have made
him the monumentals merchant Of the
nineteenth century.
sE a Wasfarn raper speaks OF q