The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-12-20
NOAH WEBSTER.
Bill Nye Compares Noah Webster's Books
with His Own.

Bill Nye Compares Noah Webster's Books
with His Own.
Louisville Courier-Journal.
Mr.. Webster, no doubt. had the best command
of language of any American author prior to our
day. Those who have read his ponderous but
rather disconnected romance known as Web
sters Unabridged Dictionary, or How One Word
Led on to Another" will agree with me that he
was smart. Noah never lacked for a word by
which to express himself. He was a brainy man
and a good speller.
1t would i'll become me at this late day to
c%riticise Mr.. Websters great work-a work that
is now in almost every library, school-room and
counting-house in the land. 1t is a great book.
| only hope that had Mr.. Webster lived he would
have been equally fair in his criticism of my
books.
l hate to compare my own books with those of
Mr.. Webster, because it may seem egotistical in
me to point out the good points in my literary la
bors; but L have often heard it said, and so do
not state it solely upon my own responsibility,
that MIR. Webster's book does not retain the in
terest of the reader all the way through.
He has tried to introduce too many characters,
and so we cannot follow them all the way
through. 1t is a good book to pick up and
while away an idle hour with, perhaps, but no
one would cling to it at night till the fire went
out, chained to the thrilling plot and the glow
ing career of its hero.
Therein consists the great difference between
Mr.. Webster and myself. A friend of mine at
Sing Sing once wrote me that from the moment
IO ~ hplu W H. bOOh lit AGNtI ltlb Ills TOOIl
until he finished it. He seemed chained to the
spot, he said, and if you can't believe a convict,
who is entirely out of politics, who in the name
of George Washington can you believel
MIR. Webster was most assuredly a brilliant
writer, and | have discovered in his later edi-
tons 1l8, 900 words, no two of which are alike.
This shows great fuency and versatility, it is
true, but we need something else. The reader
waits in vain to be thrilled by the authors Won
derful word-painting. There is not a thrill in
the whole tome. l had heard so much of Mr..
Webster that when | read his book | confess |
was disappointed 1t is cold, methodical and
dispassionate IN the extreme,
AS l said, however, it is a good book to pick
up for the purpose of Willing away an idle mo-
ment, and no one should start out on a long
journey without Mr.. Webster's tale in, his
pocket. 1t has broken the monotory of many a
tedious trip for me.
Mr.. Webster's "Speller" was a work of less
pretensions, perhaps, and yet it had an immense
sale. Eight years ago this book had reached a
sale of 40. 00O, 600, and yet it had the same grave
defect. 1t was disconnected, cold, prosy and
dull. l read it for years, and at last became a
close student of Mr.. Webster's style, yet l never
found but one thing in his book, for which there
seems to have been such a perfect stampede,
that was even ordinarily interesting and that
was a little gem. 1t was so thrilling in its de-
tails, and so Numerically different from Mr..
Websters style, that have often wondered who
he got to write it for him. 1t related to the
discovery of a boy by an elderly gentleman in
bLO ~ " eA 1NOE"A0 eAOCt anu IAO
feeling of bitterness and animosity that sprang
up at that time between the boy and the elderly
gentleman.
Though l have been a close student of Mr..
Webster for years, l Inn free to say, and | do
not wish to do an injustice to a great man in
doing so, that his ideas of literature and nv own
are entirely dissimilar. Possibly his book has o
little larger sale than mine, but that makes no
difference. When l write a book it must engage
the interest of the reader, and show some plot
to it. 1t must not be ierky in its style and scat
tering in its statements.
1 know it is a great temptation to write a book
that will sell, but we should have u higher OBJ
ject than that.
l do not wish to do an injustice to a man who
has done so much for the world, and one who
could smell the longest word without hesitation,
but l speak of these things just as would ex-
pect people to c~riticise my work. If we aspire
to monkey with the ~litterati of our day we must
expect to be criticised. That's the way look at
it. BILL NYE.
p. ST might also state that Noah Webster
was a member of the Legislature of Massachu-
sets at one time, and though l ought not to
throw it up to him ut this date, I think it moth
ing more than right that the public should know
the truth. BILL NYE.
HUDSON, WIS, Dec. 9.