The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1876-02-18
n Voice From the Wilderness.

Mr. EDITOR TRUE NoRTHERNER:
Many thanks for your editorial notice of last
week, go kind complimentary and elegant. So
far from being in the least excited by 1t, there
arises only feelings of pity and compassion for
poor, deluded, blind humanity, Therefore,
repeat it's all just right. as it affords most
excellent text for little sermon; and with
your kind permission, | will attempt TO briefly
show that there may be two sides to this mon
sense" question.
l think, Mr.. Editor, that l shall be able to
demonstrate before l get through, that at least
one Of the Editors Of the y. II. has a suff-
GENTLY competent knowledge OF his own Ian
guage," to show to minds OF average capacity
the falacy OF some of your assumptions.
would most respectfully ask,-must any
thing everything, when it is acknowledged by
all to be unsound, uncouth, and inadequate to
the wants and purposes of sense and modern
civilization, be considered an object unassail
able and unamendable-of necessity fixture
because forsooth, it has age to back it? So
had the institution Of slavery so had the
English system Of currency; sc had hundred
and one Other pet fancies begotten in the ages
of superstition and darkness; bat they had all
to bow to the stern DEGREES o. nationality
oommonsense, if you please. The representa-
ton OF other languages has been reformed,
languages which we may believe possessed just
as noble a prestige as any Of which the Eng
lish may boast, vide the Spanish. French and
German.
Nonsense"-eh Well, how does this look
for spelling? or course your astute ortho-
graphic knowledge will enable you to see the
"polnt" at once.
Roap sope, rore toar, bald sed, lebt Diet,
moo lore, busy dizzy, waughter dater, komb
CO. view view, fasslon FASHION, joust lost,
loaSn-telgh (potato) do DREAD ma Gas
a horse) etc.
Now for pronunciation, we will group the
following words thusly:
Rove, love, move, food, good, blood, does,
shoes, toes, word, ford lord, beat great, threat.
tone, done, gone, here, there were, youth,
mouth, Worcester (wooster), Rochester, and
finally the eight different sounds for the four
letters o-u-g-h. Think not that these examples
exhaust the list, the number is legion.
o yes Mr.. Editor, it's all right, OF course Il
is, for did not the good o. Walkers Diction-
airy devote seventy-two c .rto pages to the
clear elucidation Of these very things, which
some included 600 rules with an exception to
every other one OF them) by which the science
OF spelling and pronunciation was so simplfed
that even brute might understand?
Verify, 1t is preposterous in a poor, inslgnlf
cant, nondescript nice-chap"-the off shoot
Of poverty-reared among the hemlocks and
brambles OF Black River, possessing so 'slight
knowledge" of anything, thus to raise his i'm
plous hand-in his God-given rIght-against a
fabric hoary with age and enveloped ID all the
wisdom and greatness Of the past.
POUNDS what nonsense !" Who shall de-
ny the right OF free America to indulge If she
chooses in nearly 1900 different but UNSUITABLE
ways Of spelling that good and hesd-of- the. list
b-d-k-e-r or the SO, 595 legitimate ways OF get
ting at s-c-,-ss-o-rs. and the 43, $50 authorized
mode OF spelling b-le-y-m-e, certainly no bra.
zon-faced upstart connected with periodical
devoted to the cream Of nonsense"
When in English there are but 40 or A ele-
mentary sounds, requiring to illustrate them
but an equal number OF characters think you
there is any policy, wisdom, ease, or proprety
IN making use OF 65S separate and distinct rep
resentatives Of those identical sounds? Non
sense !" Ye Gods!
tell you, Mr.. Editor, this is an age Of rea-
son-of practical commonsense, and the whims
and fancles Of the old fogy element is destined
to meet condlgn suppression. just as surely as
the wheels OF progress go rolling on.
Did IL never occur to YOU nv dear sir. that
wiser heads than either yours or mine or both
combined, have pronounced against the reIgnlng
photography and limited at the possibility of a
REFORM The very highest authority IN phis-
illogical science, Prof. Max Muller, says -
feel very hopeful that beginning will be made
before long IN reforming, not, indeed, every.
thing, but at least something in the unhistor-
ical, unsystematc, unintelhgible. but by no
means unamendable spelling now current in
England"
Another, the renowned educator, Horace
Mann, than whom none stands higher in the
ranks OF education and literature, IN one Of biz
reports says:
1.-The written English tongue. instead OF
presenting system Of order symmetry and
harmony, rather seems like the particles Of
chaos suddenly arrested In their tremendous
whrl and petriied into immovable and helpless,
disorder"
And so l might, II time allowed, multipl,
authorities by the score but enough for m,
present purpose. My parting suggestion
friend NoRTHERNER, Is to take,-and get al
your friends to do the same-and faithfully
read the Normal Herald for a year, with thu
mind Invested Of bigotry, unwarped by preju
Dice alert to the demands OF the age" tn
greatest good to the greatest number" and m,
word for it, twill aid your digestion, expan'
your heart, and correct your judgment to
higher estimate OF the motives that prompt tn
labors ~
Your friend and well-wisher,