Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1878-07-23
Mark Twain ON Spelling.

A short time since there was spelling
match at the Asylum Hill Congregation
al Church, Hartford, Conn, and Mr..
Samuel L. Clemens, Mark Twain be-
ing called on for few preliminary re-
marks. spoke as fOllows-"Ladies and
Gentlemen-I have been honored with
the Office Of introducing these approach
ing photographed solemnities with a
few remarks. The temperance crusade
swept the land some time ago, that is,
that vast portion of the land where it
was needed, but it skipped Hartford.
Now comes this new spelling epidemic,
and this time we are stricken. So I sup
pose we needed the affiiction. I don't
say needed it, for don't see any use in
spelling word right, and never did. T
mean, [ don't see any use in having a
uniform and arbitrary way of spelling
words. We might as we'll make all
clothes alike and cook all dishes alike.
Sameness is tiresome; variety is pleas
ing. [ have correspondent whose let
tiers are always refreshment to me !:
there is such breezy, unfettered origi-
nality about his photography. He spells
Kow with a large X. Now, that is just
as good as to spell it with small one.
1t is better. 1t gives the imagination a
broader field, a wider scope. 1t sug-
gests to the mind grand, vague, i'm
pressive, new kind ola COW. Superb eff
fects can be produced by variegated
spelling. Now, there is Blind Tom. the
musical prodigy. He always spells a
word according to the sound that is car
ried to his ear Andh is an enthusiast
in photography. When you give him a
word, he shouts it outputs al his soul
into it. 1 once heard him called upon to
spell orange-outang before an audience.
lie said-'O-r-a.n-g, orang, ger, ger,
tan G, tang, Granger tangn Now, a bo-
dy can respect an Orang-outang that
spells his name in a vigorous way like
that. But the feeble dictionary makes
mere kitten of him. In the old times
people spelled just as they pleased Fiat
was the right idea. You had two chan
ces at stranger then. You knew a
strong man from weak one by his iron
clad spelling, and his hand writing
helped you to verify your verdict. Some
people have an idea that correct spelling
can be taught-and taught to anybody
This is a mistake. The spelling faculty
is born in man, like poetry, music and
art. 1t is gift /; it is a talent. People
who have this gift in a high degree only
lCCh w DEC d WOIu OuCC LII pint, anu
is forever photographed upon theil
memory. They cannot forget it. Peo
pie who haven't it must be content tc
spell more or less like-like thunder
and expect to splinter the dictionary
wherever their photographed lightning
happens to strike. There are one hau
dred and four teen thousand words in
the unabridged dictionary. I know
lady who can spell only one hundred
and eighty of them right. She steer
clear of all the rest. She can't learn any
more. So her letters always consist o
those constantly recurring one hundred
aud eighty words. Now and then, wher
she finds herself obliged to write upon !
subject which necessitates the use o
some other words, she-weIl she dom
write upon that subject ] have reIa
tive in New York who is almost sub
timely gifted. She can't speIlaly wore
right. There is game called Verbari
UNI: A dozen people are each provided
with sheet of paper, across the top o
which is written a long word like kale
idoscopical, or something like that, ant
the game is to see who can make up ths
most words out of that in three minutes
always beginning with the initial letter
of the word. Upon one occasion the
word chosen was cofferdam When
time was called everybody had built
from five to twenty words, except this
young lady. She had only one word
calf. We all studied moment and
then said-'Why, there is no III Golfer
DAM Then we examined her paper.
To the eternal honor of that uninspired,
unconscious, sublimely.independent soul
be it said, she had spelled that word
'caff? If anybody here can spell calf
more sensIbly than that, let him step to
the front and take his milk. The insur-
rection will now begin"