The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1876-09-14

OF spelling words We might as well
make all clothes alike and cook all dishes
alike. Sameness is tiresome; variety is
| pleasing. l have correspondent whose
letters are always a Refreshments to me,
there is such Il breezy, unfettered origin
talliy about his photography. He always
spells Cow with large K Now that is
| just as good az TO spell it with small
one. It is better. 1t gives the magma
ton broader field, wider scope. 1t
suggests to the mind, a grand, vague,
impressive new kind of a COW. Superb
effects can. be produced by variegated
spelling. Now, there is Blind Tom, the
musical prodigy, He always spells a
work according to the sound that IS
carried to his ear And he is an enthu-
sIast in photography. When you give
him word, ue shouts OUTPUTS all his
soul into it. I once heard him called
upon 10 spell orang-oatang before an
audience He said-"O. ran &, orang,
ger, ger, Granger, tang, tang,
torangger tang!' Now. body can re
spect an orang-outapg that spells his
name in vigorous way like that. But
the feeble dictionary makes q mere
kitten OF him. In the old times people
spelled just S they pleased. Thas was
the right idea. You had two chances at
a stranger then: You knew astrong man
from weak one by his iron-clad SPELL
ing. and his handwriting helped you to
verify you verdict.
Some people have an idea that correct
spelling can be taught-and taught to
anybody. That is mistake. The
! spelling faculty is born in man, like
poetry, music and art. Il is gift; it is
talent. People who have this Gift in a
high degree need only to see q word once
in print and it is forever photographed
upon their memory. They cannot forget
lit. People who haven't 1t must be con-
tent 10 spell more or less like-like
thunder-and expect to splinter the
dictionary wherever their orthograDhical
lightning happens to strike. There are
114000 wor 8 in the unabridged diction-
airy. [ know a lady who can spell only
100 of them right. She steers clear of
all the rest. Size can't learn any more.
So her letters always consist Of those
constantly recurring $50 words, Now
and then, wh"n she finds herself obliged
t. write upon a subject which necessi-
ia es the use of some other words, She
we'll, she don't write on that subject.
have relative in New York who is
almost sublimely gifted. She can't
jspell any word right. There is q game
called Verbarium. A dozen people are
J each provided with sheet of paper
across the top of which is written long
work like "kaleidoscopical," or some
thing like at,and the game is tosee who
} can make up the most words out of that
in three minutes, 81 ways beginning with
the initinal letter az that word
Upon one occasion the word was "ccffer
dam" When time was called, every
b 1dy hal D 1T from five to twenty
words, except this yourg lady. She had
only ore word-calf. We all studied q
moment and then SAID. why, there Is no
in '.coferdam." Then we examined her
paper To the eternal honor OF that
uninspired, un conscious. sublimeiy indie
pendent soul. be 1t said she had spelt that
word "caf!" If ANYBODY here can spell
"calf' any more sensibIy than that, let
him step to the front. The instruction
will now begir.-Ed,Ccatjol3a2 Reporter.