The Cheyenne daily leader. [volume] (Cheyenne, Wyo.) 1870-1884, 1883-11-03
NOAH WEBSTER, LII. D.
The Evolution of bis Never-to-be
Forgotten Speling-Book-
The First Edition Published in
Izs3---Poor Tray and Other
FabIcs--Seventy-Five
Millions Soid-

Millions soid-
Joel Benton writes for the October number
of the Magazine of American History an
article en- tbe centennial anniversary Of the
Webster s~pelling-book, in which he traces
some of the changes which occurred in the
earlier editions The first edition of the
spelling-book was published in lTsS. OF the
book as it was ultimately, Mr.. Benton says:
1t was not born all at once, but, like Topsy, it
''growed-" The oldest copy l have before me
Is dated 1928. It had then dropped its
synopsis Of grammar, and was titled as fol-
lows: THE American Spelling-Book; Con-
tanning the Rudiments of the English Lam
guage, for the Use of Schools in the United
States Tho copyright of tho book had now
been running eleven years, and in 1923 it
passed through n revision so thorough TINT a
new name was given it, and a new copyright
was secured. 1t appears from this time forth
9Th Elementary Spelling Book, being an I'm
provement on the American Spelling Book
The first copy / have OF this new edition
bears date OF 1884. 1t is noticeable that the
book has now achieved substantially its final
form, as it has been known and quoted and
remembered for nearly fifty years In sub
sequent years from this date you will SEQ a
few changes, but they are slight and Of
detail merely
THAT WONDERFUL MINERVA.
The tables now so long familiar, such as
that on the twenty-ifth page, beginning with
baker are the same to-day. in every import
ant feature that they were fifty years and
more ago. But the matter Of the pictures Is
a varying note: in some years they wero
given and in some they were omitted, which
necessitatsd, OF coursc, some now text in their
place. / find that nearly all the plates OF the
copy printed in 1884 coincide with that copy
righted in 1880, the variations occurring in
the last twenty or thirty pages. The Elo-
mentary Spelling-Book gave moro readings
than its predecessors, which had none until
1t reached tho forty-third page. hat won-
derful picture OF Minerva, the goddess Of
wisdom. with her lofty md dignihod cap
II suppose IL was she, though when a boy 1t
bewildered mo not a ~littlel, taking a
young aspirant by the hand and
pointing, with her right arm appraised, 10 the
two temples of knowledge and lame in the
distance, everybody will remember. 1t
served, and still serves, as a frontispiece; md
dates hack, / think, to 1899. 1t was a pic
ture which | have poured over for hours on
the school bench, wondering how those rocks
and precipiccs could ever be sur1nounted
which stood so gloomily in the way OF tho
coveted journey. In tho book, as now pub
lished, this picture is given In a little more
artistic form, with two or three slightly diff
ferent touches in the background and fore
ground; but It seems to lose in interest as
much as itgains in quality by the change.
POETRY.
The copy OF ls2s has a number OF selections
of poetry toward the end OF the book about
The Rose, y THE Lamb "The Birds Nest
and "on n Goldhnch Starved in His Cage"
intended for advanced scholar. The first is
the well. known poem In the English Reader,
but its first verse is given with the names Of
julia and Emma substituted for Mary and
Anna, with some other changes which must
have come from an imperfect copy. or the
names might have been chosen to please some
Of the authors intimate acquaintance or to
honor members of his family. ''The LAMB
was not "MAry's Little Lamb" but another
less funny and more pathetic.
1t has pleased me to note that in the
"American Spelling-Book,n in n list Of towns
given (which was not reprinted in the "Ele-
mentary Spelling Book'1, Mr.. Webster has
signalized his interest in Sharon. where his
first studies for the book were begun, by
using Sharon and its adjacent towns,
Amenia, Kent, Salisbury, and cornwall as
instances for pronunciation-which be would
hardly have done had they never been in
proximity to him.
THE MAIDS sPILLED MILK.
In speaking OF the alternate appearance
and disappearance OF the fables and their ac-
conpAnying cuts, l should have said that
they were not always precisely the same
from year to year. But you were always
sure when they appeared to find the one OF
The Boy Who Stole Apples and THE
Country Maid and Her Mlk-Pail." This
last seemed to me particularly pathetic. 1
always felt profoundly sorry for that milk
maid. She was n little too much elated and
imaginative, perhaps, and she was building
n very big castle on n somewhat dinphanous
basis But IL was, after all only the pardon
able luxury OF idle reycry. The fable was
different from those most familiar to US, too,
by having the moral drawn very solemnly
rs a preface 10 the story. and that mos al was
not at all the one that would have occurred
70 me. TIL most obvious and valuable les
son that it told, l used to think. was tia 1t
would be bettert TO carry a pail OF milk with
your hands. instead Of trying to balance it on
your bead. The boy in the apple tree, how
ever, seemed 10 richly deserve his fate.
VARIOUS EDITION.
The fables in the edition Of 1898 are: L.
"Of the Boy Who Stole Apples" 9. The one
abc-e given. 5. 'The Fox and the Swal-
4 The Cat and the Ratn s. The
Fox and the Bramble.n q. THE Bear and
the Two Friends" Z. ''The Two Dogs this
Is the story Of poor Tray" 8 The Partial
Judge" Q. THE Boy Who Went to the
Woods to Look for Birds Nests When He
Should Have Gone TO School" The last one,
probably, while the teachers whip was Ia
sight, as 1t usually was half a century ago,
was impressive enough without n picture
and 30 1t stands unillustrated, on the naked
enormity OF the crime itself
In the oldest edition which / possess the
fables used are Nos. l, 9, 4, 8, Q, Z, and s,
preceded by three pictures on the dog, the
Ftag. and the squirrel, which are simply de
scribed- The pictures accompanying these
fables arc entirely made over TO conform to
a different style OF art.
There is one edition, at least, Of the SPELL
ing-book, published about thirty years
ago, which, like the old Farmers Almanac
had running pictures at the top of each page,
the text being unaltered beneath them, ex-
Dept that 1t was compressed so as to give the
needed space for this addition For some
reason these border pictures were soon aban
doned, and never again made their appear
ance.
ALEXANDER ANDERSON.
Very few can tell. l presume, the artist
that made the strictly simple, and now very
interesting, wood-cuis that hold for US still,
as in amber, the remembrance of that green
silk dress the milkmAid never got, the beaux
she did not zee in order TO jllt them, and the
discontinue Of poor Tray for being found in
bad company, and all the rest. But this mr.
list, nevertheless. was a very remarkable