The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1882-02-11
PHOTOGRAPHY.
Councillor Wells Grows Sedstsly
Humorous.
And Entertains the Council with
a Disquisition on Spelling.
A Good Spell all Around.

to-day's HERALD, the report of
Messrs. Wells and Thatcher upon
the Political Situation" POLY
gamy," ETC., came up and was
scanned by the Council. It was to-
wards the end Of the session when
the last clause was read by the
clerk, the one which reads 'strain
at gnat and swallow a Campbell, /"
that Councillor Game moved 20 have
the last word of the sentence spelled
according to the King James YER
sion of photography and Webster's
unabridged dictionary. At this
junctue, Councillor Wells, one of
the authors of the report, arose and
astonished the members of the
Council with a highly humorous
address, the substance of which was
as follows
"Mr. President and gentlemen of
the Council: Before the vote upon
the photography of this word is
taken, wish to make a few re-
marks. l have sat patiently in my
seat while the Council have been
scrutinizing this report; 1 have seen
them tear its sentences to pieces
and have gazsd on the slaughter Of
words without murmur, but now
that you attack the spelling, gentle
men, it is too much. If there is
anything in the world l pride my
self upon, it is my spelling The
honorable member on my left who
makes this motion, could not have
been aware of the vast amount of
erudition he was likely to encounter
in suggesting such a proposition as
to interfere with the spelling of
this word. or he never would have
had the temerity to do so. Pre-
sumptiOus man, how dare you?
From the time Of my earliest
recollection l have always been
in the front line of progress,
especially in spelling. Long
ago, among my earliest scho0l-bOy
days, in the time of toW-cloth shirts
and pants, and straw hats in sum-
mer and butternut-colored full-cloth
for winter wear; long before pho
netlcS or reporters were invented !;
while struggling up the hill of sci
ence with the full determination if
| could not reach its summit, that
would at all hazards drink from the
fountain that gurgled from it's base
quoted, kirkham); in those print
tive days. Mr.. President. learned
to spell. Since then, too, l have been
Regent of the University of Deseret
for many years, and have attended
series OF lectures on phonetics and
Deseret Alphabet spelling, given by
Prof. George D. Watt-of blessed
memory-a thorough disciple of the
great Pitman. Besides, the honora-
bic gentleman on my right-the
chairman of the committee on edu-
catlon-whO, | am convinced, can
read as well as spell, has passed
Judgment upon this word; indeed,
l believe we are all able to read OF
this side Of the House and perhaps
the honorable members on the other
side can, although from our side it
looks like they held their books and
papers upside down; however, they
may appear all right to them and
for all I know they may be able to
read-certain suggestive inquiries to
the contrary Notwithstanding. l
am SanglIins, if the Council cannot
read they can spell a little, and | be-
lieVe they have all seen this word in
print, spelled the same as it now
stands in the report under consider
alton. But to return to the early
days. While thus struggling to
drink at the fountain aforesaid, we
often became stalled in the study of
our spelling lessons and with our
fore-tingers pointing to the hard
word, went up to the teacher to ask
how to pronounce that word, and
the teacher, without looking up,
used to say, Spell it, my boy"
While one Of the boys was endeaY-
oring to construe that somewhat
abstruse but very difficult passage,
which according to the usually ac-
cepted, but now antique and
fossiliferous, version reads: Strain
at q gnat and swallow a camel"
he fell into what the honorable gen
tleman on my left would probably
consider an error. In spelling out
the words of the passage, according
to the teachers directions, he SIAM
mered: "G-q1-G-t gate and SEQ al
IotO swallow ca saw mel mill, so
as to make the clause read, "Strain
at gate and swallow saw mill"
Thus, you see, Mr.. President and
gentlemen, the sad and egregious
mistakes which have and are liable
to occur in rendering the meaning
Of this passage. But, ,phonetically
considered, the boy was not so far
wrong either, for in the word gnat,
neither the sound of the letters or
is heard and nat would be nate
and g.G-t would be gate. So also in
regard to the word camel; the letter
C is easily mistaken for the sound
represented by the letter S, which
indeed, is it's real and only sound,
and as has five sounds. one of
which is GIo, according to the Ele-
mentary spelling book, it can
readily be seen how this syllable
could be rendered Satc; as to the
nell, the middle letter being the
short sound of e, in phonetics would
be rendered mill. For example. we
saw met, pronounced nleot,the short
sound Of the vowel being as pro-
nounced in the word NIT. The same
may be said of pet, the short sound
of which is pit; and Of seen, sin !:
teen, tim: meeL. mill. I am aware