The Hillsdale standard. [volume] (Hillsdale, Mich.) 1851-1909, 1876-02-29

Ths Rpsasaic Crssscs the Aslaasic-
sssw ts 10 NasarAlized Thsre.
From the Springfield (x....) Republican.

From the Springfield (Mass.) Republican
The American spelling furore Of last
winter has reached England rather too
late TO enter fully into the sports of
the season, but, this winter. the tidal
wave has broken with full force on AL
bion. They call them spelling bees
over there instead OF spelling schools,
being probably in entire ignorance of
the idyllic nature OF rural spelling
schools in this country, when the bright
boys and girls OF rural "deestricts"
turn out In their puny sleighs over the
crisp snow to merry bout OF wit, skill
and filtration. We have, however,
nome reports in the Bondon papers OF
the manner in which these bees are
conducted in the ncighborhood of Lon
don. A large audience even paid 80
cents admission to Holloway Hall TO
witness a contest Of sixty competitors,
Ave men aud twenty-five women, for
the works OF Dickens, Wsbster's Die
tionarv aud other prizes. Such words
a. cincture, escutchcon, baronisl aud
gossiping brought down the first VIC
TINS, and even some of those who took
prizes failed on dsguerreotype and
strontiab. lb
A writer in the London News, who
had Just come from spelling match,
finds great fault with the laxity Of the
popular pronunciation. In that case
the chnirmau of the meeting prefaced
the spelling with few remarks depre-
eating the general ignorance OF the art,
seven in gentlemen who ave had q
university education" The mau who
put out the words was painfully igno-
rant OF pronunciation. as the following
instances will show:
He gave "cynosure" as 'sinnosure,"
"dsasiccate" with the accent on the
first syllable, "ephmeral' with long
at the beginning, as il compounded OF
the Latin proposition ., '.hscatomb"
as "hecatoom," probably under the
Impression that toomb is always toom;
"aggrandizement" with longi, and ac-
cent on the third syllable; "esoteric"
with long initial G, again an il COM
pounded from the Latin 9, (a lady
spelling the word as pronounced ESQ,
g., in esophagus," was ruled out;)
"cylindracsouss with the CO "a, al
though only 81 or ii would admitof
such a pronunciation, (again a gentle
man was ruled out for giving ''cious"
as the final syllablesD "doguerreotype'
positively as "dagweerotype;" "es-
oharotic" with the ch soft. And when
when n man spelled cycle ''psychle,"
the Intcrrogator made the funny re-
mark, "Ah, there is such a word. bnt 1
mean the cycle OF years +
One inevitable result OF these coa-
tests is to renew the dictionary war,
aud it is very easy for persons spelled
down 10 claim that Webster's only tit
for Americans. Ii was thought hard
case, for instance, that Webster sholld
compel a young lady to miss n prize
for having spelled "ycleped' with q
final ( instead Of cd. But Bell & Sons,
the English publishers Of the Unabrig-
ed. had no difficulty in showing that
not only Webster but every English
lexicographer spelled the word "yclep-
cd" whatever variations might have
been introduced under poetic license.
The fame of the Webster dictionary is
likely TO be ever more thoroughly vim
dicated by these spelling matches, IL
both sides are heard. But our English
cousins pursue the matter with dread
full seriousness which places the Amer
lean spectator under much smbarrass-
mept.