Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1885-01-01
NOAH WEBSTER.
Bill Nye Compares Noah Webster's
Books W it'll His own.
For the Courier-JournaI

For the Courier-Journa.
Mr.. Webster, no doubt, had the best
command of language of any Ameri-
can author prior to our day. Those
who have read his pondsrous but
rather disconnected romance ksown
as "Webster's Unabridged Dictionary,
or How One Word Lcd on to An
other" will agree with me that he
was smart. Noah never lacked for a
word by which to express himself.
He was brainy man and a good spell
err
1t would Ill become me at this late
day to criticize Mr.. Webster's great
work-a work that is now in every
library, schoolroom and counting
house in the land. It is great book.
I only hope that had Mr.. Webster
lived he would have been equally fair
in his criticism of my books.
| hate to compare my own works
with those of Mr. Webster, because it
may seem egotistical in noe to point
out the good points in my literary la
bors; but [ have often heard it said,
and so do not state it solely upon nay
own responsibility, that Mr.. Webster's
book does not retain the interest of
the reader all the way through.
He tries to intoduce too many char
acters, and SO we can not 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 TIL tie fire
went out, chained to the thrilling
plot, and the glowing career of the
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 he got hold
of my book he never left his room un-
til 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 believe?
Mr. Webster was most assuredly a
brilliant writer, and have discovered
in his later editions lis, 900 words, no
two of which are alike. This shows
great fuency aud versatility, it is true,
but we need something else. The
reader waits Ia vain to be thrilled by
the authors wonderful word painting.
There is not thrill in the whole time
I had read so much of Mr.. Webster
that when I read his book [ confess [
was disappointed. 1t is cold, method
ical and dispassionate IN the extreme
As [ said, however, it is good book
to pick up for the purpose of Willing
away an idle moment, and no one
should start out on long journey
without Mr.. Webster's tale In his peck
ct. It has broken the monotony of
many tedious trip for me.
Mr.. Webster's ''Speller" was work
of less pretensions, perhaps, ana yet it
had an immense sale. Eight years
ago this book had reached sale of
40, 100000, and yet it had the same
grave defect 1t was disconnected,
cold, prosy and dull. I read it for
years, and at last became a close stu
dent of Mr.. Webster's style, yet [
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
little gem. It was so thrilling ia its
details, and so dramatically different
from Mr. Webster's style, that [ have
often wondered who he got to write
it for him. It related to the discovery
of boy by an elderly gentleman in
the crotch of of an ancestral apple
tree, and the feeling of bitterness and
animosity that sprang up at that time
between the boy and the elderly gem
tleaan.
Though have been close STUDENT
of Mr.. Webster for years, [ ana free to
say, and [ do not wish to do an Unjust
ice to q great man in doing SO, that
his ideas of literature and my own are
entirely dissimilar. Possibly his book
has had little larger sale than mine,
but that makes no difference. When
[ write book it must engage the in
terest of the reader. and show some
plot to it. It must not be jerky in
It's style and scattering in its state
ments.
know it is a great temptation to
write book that will sell, but we
should have a higher object than
that.
I do not wish to do an injustice to a
man who has done so much for the
world, and one who could spell the
longest word without hesitation, but I
speak of these things just as would
expect people to criticize my work.
II we aspire to monkey with the
itterati of our day we must expect to
be criticized. That's the way I look
at 1t. BILL NYE.
P. ST might also state that Noah
Webster was member of the Legis-
lature of Massachusetts at one time,
and though I ought not to throw it
up to him at this date, think it moth
ing more than right that the public
should know the truth. BILL NYE.
HUDSON, Wis Dec 9.