The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1875-04-04
The Influence OF Orthography Upon
Crime.


The importance of education as a means of
preventing crime is universally admitted, and
for that reason the present popularity of
spelling bees is likely to have marked effect
on criminal statistics. The grounds of this
opinion are not difficult to find. The reason
so many persons write badly is that they can
not spell. He who cannot spell correctly dare
not write plainly, but must use an affected care
lessness to hide real, ignorance. This is why
the majority of people always write Mississippi
with capital M and.a tail of little assesses
and iseses, like o comet why nobody writes
Cincinnati or Massachusetts or Tennessee as
plainly as we print them, and Why no one can
tell in manuscript whether Mediterranean is
written with one or two is. The ignorant
speller is wrecked upon the multtudinous
sees, and bad writing is used to make the
green one seem well read. Thus bad spelling
leads directly to chirographical delitescence,
one of the worst offences known to the
moral code. Hypocrisy is thus made an ele-
ment of penmanship; but the evil does not
stop here. IL passes from the writer to the
reader of the scrawl. Bad writing is produc-
tive of cursing and who can tell how much
Horace Greeley RUFUS Choate and Colonel
Forney, public men with extensive correspond
ence, have done to make swearing national
vice? Every letter these great statesmen
wrote went forth as q missionary to promote
profanity. Colonel Forney, on the occasion
of one of Mr.. Choate's great speeches, wrote
him complimentary letter, in which
he said, in his poetical way, "You
sum an heather heaven in yourself
and top high crowned Olympus" Mr.. Choate
read the sentence thus:-"You seem an
heather in heaven, you wretch, at top fly
blown bumpus, " and in fit of anger wrote
most abusive reply, which Colonel Forney
still keeps in bis album as cordial invitation
to dinner. Now, is it not an inevitable con-
clusion that all Of these great statesmen pur-
posely wrote q bad hand because they were
little shaly in their spelling We attribute
to the enormous amount of their literary
labors and correspondence the notorious prev
alence Of biasphemy among compositors the
moral ruin of many proof-reader and the
habitual cursing of which Americans are
accused.
If the bad results of bad spelling ended in
the hypocrisy of bad writing and swearing
we should be rejoiced; but, alas it does not
Cursing always leads to anger, and many
fierce quarrel has been provoked by abusive
language. An oath is generally answered by
a blow, and thus assault and battery becomes
the next step in crime. You receive q letter
h,y
who cannot spell. Your passions are aroused,
and to give vent to your anger you swear at
your unoffending wife. That high-spirited
woman responds with the shovel, and you
rejoin with the longs The next thing
is that you are hung After that it is
unnecessary to continue the story. Thus
does one vice create another It is a subject
tor mathematical demonstration-e. g., as to-
bacco smoking is to rum drinking so is bad
spelling TO bad writing; as intoxication is to
burglary SO is bad penmanship to profanity;
as burglary is to arson 50 is profanity to
strife; as arson is to cruelty to animals so is
strife to bloodshed; and, finally, as cruelty to
animals is to Bergh SO is bloodshed to murder.
The philosophical mind thus tracing the
causes of crime from their effects feels pro-
found relief in the efforts now being made to
purify the fountain-head Of society. The
spelling match at the Cooper Institute last
night is a part Of the great reform which will
be one of the gIories of our time. The school,
boys and proof-readers whospelled the longest
words SO well will be good members of society.
LET me spell the words Of a people" said
Montesquieu-or was it De Tocqueville-
land care not who pays their taxes" These
golden words from one who is acknowledged
70 be the profoundest Of modern thinkers
should be cherished by oil, and particularlyby
those who harden themselves in crime by the
daily murder of the English language.
Brothers, we have had enough Of war and
strife, now let US resolve TO have a long spell
of peace.