Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1880-08-20
Briefer Spelling.

Our late article on The subject
Boil it down." l propose to inspec
and =" boil it down" to q consistency
you would little suspect. By adua
count, your article contains 337 silent
letters; that is, letters that arc no Of
the slightest use in expressing the
written idea or the sounds of the
words as spoken. Your article as
printed, contains an average of "a let.
tiers to line, and 80 it will be very
nearly accurate to say that these 337
silent letters make 10 lines. Thep are
II lines in the article. Take oui the
III lines of useless silent letters and
you boil it down" to 64 lines If vi.
tai, vocal, effective letters; that Il, IA
per cent of your article conyeJs no
idea, expresses nothing, and is worse
than useless, because it occupies val.
liable space. Ii that ratio holds good
throughout the expression of English
speech in type to-day and it does ap-
proximately-14 per cent OF ever, issue
Of the Tribune is desert waste. Not q
t"lS sprouts nor blade of idea grows
In 1t. You are patiently, laborously,
and uselessl y putting into type. where
1t is expensive, what is not uttered in
speech, where prodigality is cheap and
permissible. OF the Y columns of
your daily issue, ii per cent, OF about
10 columns are devoted to these ghost
OF letters, who stalk through the 7rib
u"e without any soul, or idea, or func-
ton whatever. II they would only so
much as "squeak and jibber," there
might be modicum OF sense which
would justify their parade, hut they
do not. There they stand, stupidity,
stolilly silent. The Great Silent Man
himself is Lot more vacantly unutter-
able.
Now what would the space of those
I'D sterile columns be worth to you for
advertising? AT 200 lines per column,
and 80 cents per line, your medium
rate, the sum would equal 81 900,
which you are contributing every day
to the support of these shadows. In
one year the sum would amo ant to
$500 600, and in 10 years to So 900 900,
for the Tribune alone. Tue ousting OF
these expensive parasites il type is
only question of time. This is an
age that destroys shams, and these
sham letters are fated to go with the
rest. Their displacement is perfectly
practical, and true representatives of
sound may be introduced instead with
out enlarging or disturbing any of the
arrangements of the present style of
printing Office. The SORROWS of editors
will more and more increase. You
will live more and more "in a chroni.
cally crowded condition." you will
bend more and more under an embar-
rassment Of MATERIAL" leaving out
many a good thing with regret, but
putting In these dead-letter types with
no regret. till, finally. the necessity for
econOmlzing space will compel the
dropping of every letter that does not
perform an exact and positive duty.
Even the abbreviation of few of the
most frequent words would be per-
fectly Practicable, and could he Car
ried to the extent Of saving half the
space without the least loss of legi-
bility. An able man will take hold of
this work some day and start us on the
road to general boiling it down."
And Why not the Tribune, which has
wrestled with SO many giants, slain 80
many rings. and righted 80 many
wrongs? Why is it not in order, and
for its own vital interest, 70 graphic
with this monster of waste ard absur.
dity, this stumbling block in the path
of learning, and bury it out of sight !?
Il. G. LELAND, in Ne,o York Tribune.