Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1883-11-08
NOAH WEBSTER, Ill. D.
The Evolution Of His Never.to-be
Forgotten Spelling-Book.
The First Edition Published in
ISS3--- Poor Tray and Other
Enthusiastically Five
Millions Sold.

Joel Benton writes for the October number
OF the Magazine of American History an
article ON the centennial anniversary Of the
Webster spelling-book, in which he traces
some of the changes which occurred in the
earlier editions. The first edition of the
spelling-book WIGS published in 17SS. Of the
book as it was ultimately, MIR. Benton says:
1t was not born all at once but, like Topsy, it
''growed" The oldest copy have before me
is dated 1893 1t had then dropped its
synopsis ofsgrammar, and was titled as fol-
lows: "fhe American Spelling Book; Con-
tanning the Rudiments Of the English Lam
guage, for the Use Of Schools in the United
States" The copyright of the book had now
been running eleven years, aid in 1929 it
passed through a revision SO thorough that a
new name was given it, and a new copyright
was secured It appears from this time forth
''The Elementary Spelling Book, being an I'M
provement on the American Spelling Book. .
The first copy I 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
EeQuent years from this date you will see a
few changes, but they are slight and Of
detail merelys
THAT WONDERFUL MINERVA.
The tables now SO long familiar, such as
that on the twenty-fifth 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 were
given and in some they were omitted, which
necessitated, Of course, some new text in their
find hot oil lafo of
copy printed in 1884 coincide with that copy
righted in 1880, the variations occurring in
the last twenty or thirty pages The Ele-
mentary Spelling-Book gave more readings
than its predecessors, which had none until
itreached the forty third page. That Won
derful picture of Minerva, the goddess of
wisdom, with her lofty and dignifed cap
q suppose it was she, though when a boy it
bewildered me not little), taking a
young aspirant by the hand and
pointing, with her right arm appraised, to the
two temples of knowledge and fame in the
distance, everybody viii remember. It
served, and still serves, as frontispiece; and
dates back, I think, to 1929 1t was pic
ture which l have poured over for hours on
the school bench, wondering how those rocks
and precipices could ever be surmounted
SSOOo
coveted journey. In the book, as now pub
lished, this picture is given in q 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 it gains in quality by the change.
POETRY.
The copy of 1928 has number Of selections
Of poetry toward the end Of the book about
''The Rose ''rhe Lamb, ''The Birds Nest, u
and ''On a Goldfnch Starved in His Cage
intended for advanced scholars 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, j" in a, list of towns
given (which was not reprinted in the 'eE1e-
mentary Spelling Book'1, Mr.. Webster has
signalizea his interest in Sharon, where his
first studies for the book were begun, BY
using Sharon and its adjacent towns,
Armenia, Kent, Salisbury, and Cornwall as
instances for pronunciation-which he 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 &C
companying 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 StoFe Apples" and THE
Country Maid and Her Milk-Pail." This
last seemed to me particularly pathetic. I
always felt profoundly sorry for that milk
maid She was a little too much elated and
imaginative, perhaps, and she was building
a very big castle on a somewhat diaphanous
basis. But il was, after all only the PARDON
able luxury of idle revery. The fable was
different from those most familiar to US. too
by having the moral drawn very solemnly
as a preface to the story, and that moral was
not at all the one that would have occurred
to me. The most obvious and valuable les
son that it told, used to think, was that it
would be better to carry pail of milk with
your hands, instead of trying to balance it on
your head. The boy in the apple tree. how
S'~-t SO-A4ACt ~ l-SAlAJ OSssSi 'c ldue.
VARIOUS EDITION.
The fables in the edition of 1928 are: l.
''Of the Boy Who Stole Apples" .. The one
above given. 8. ''The Fox and the Swal-
low" 4. 'The Cat and the Rat" 5. sThe
Fox and the Bramble" 6. ''The Bear and
the Two Friends" T. ''The Two Dogs this
is the story of poor Tray" 8. ''The Partial
Judge. O. Tho Boy Who Went to the
Woods to Look for Birds Nests When He
Should Have Gons to School" The last one,
probably, while the teachers whip was IN
sight, as j. usually was half century ago.
was impressive enough without q picture;
and % 1t stands umlustFated, on the nakzsd
eneymiky Of the crime itself
In the eldest edition which I possess tina
fables used arc Nos. 1, 2, T. 5,6,7, and s,
preceded by three pictures on the dog, the
stag, and tf,e squirrels, which are Simply de-
s0ribed. Fhs prturcs accompanying these
fablss aro en.Hay made over to conform to
different styis of art
There is oae edition, at least, OF the spell
ing-book, published about thirty-five years
ego, which, like the old Farmers Almanac. =
had running pictures at tie top of each page,
the text bsing upaltered beneath them. ex-
cept that 1t was compressed so as to give ths
needed space for this addition For scns