Huntsville gazette., 1886-06-05

publisher: 4 will spell those words
quite correctly to-day or tomorrow,
but just now it is impossible Fortu-
nately, it did not hurt the value of the
work, for that intelligent and forgiv-
ing publisher bought that book. Ifeel
very much ashamed of myself, how
ever, whenever see him. fancy my
mistakes arise from some sudden
obliteration of the mental faculties,
for the confusion is not permanent.
1t goes and comes. If l say. to my
self: Now watch out and see that
you pay particular attention to your
spelling,' l could not produce . hum
dred words consecutively. Yes, it
worries me. Here is an instance hap
pening to me to-day: am very much
interested in abstract science, and am
reviewing for a periodical series OF
works on particular topic, and have
to take copious notes. / wrote the
simple word many NANCY ] don't
think / ever put the 'e' in before. That
extra 'e' fascinated me. / was con-
seious that it looked funny and orig.
inal. 1t seemed ludicrous, and it an
noyed me. Then, after while, / did
not know. whether it was right or
wrong. / had to call on my little girl
and ask her to spell many for me.
As long as I live 1 never shall write
made and maid without shying al
them. The verb and the noun are
utterly distinct, but nevertheless l
have to think whether The
Made of Orleans is right as
far as it refers to Joan of Arc. It's a
trick of forty odd years standing. De
spair' is another word. l despair Of
ever writing it without a feeling of
uncertainty. want to make it de
spare l have a pitch battle with my
pen before can work in the j, and as
often as not / put in the after the
word is written. l won't write 'des-
perate' if ever can help it, but must
write 'despairate.' It's my worst case
of mixing words. I pause always at
whether and weather. though /
never blunder there, but you might
put pistol to my head and not pre-
vent my writing 'hypocrite' 'hypocrit;'
that final 'e' dropped out of my head
years on years ago. Do you want me
to expose my imbecility furtherP l
never could write aquatic or 'aque-
duct but properly, and would be inca
pable of blundering with aqua marine,'
but the chances are ninety in the hum
dred that if wanted to write aquarium
/ should make it aquarium / al
ways banker, too, after making quar-
ter. one-fourth, 'quater.' I have a
hatred for that interloping r. My
daughter coached me most heroically
about agreeable with an "a, but when
she found that I pushed the "a into
agreement, she gave me up in de-
spare-no, 'd-e-s-p-ai-r-e.' l was
shamed into Principal because 1 had
to write to the principal of a school
about my lecturing before his class;
but am positive l have addressed him
as Principle speak French and
German fluently, read Italian and
Spanish with perfect ease, delight in
the Roman poets, and am distinguished
for bad spelling in three languages. l
do not brazen it out 1 do not say i
don't care rather solicit your pity
for very sad infirmity,''
In order to satisfy ones self how
strange are these idiosyncracies, it is
only necessary for the reader, without
going into the spelling bee
annoyance, to ask his friends
in regard to their peculiarities
of spelling. 1t is exceedingly rare
to find any one who does not tell me
that he halts over certain words. A
gentleman who in his professional duty
reads all the leading journals of the
United States declares that the words
most frequently misspelled are close"
and "loose," for both editors and proof
readers seem to be at sea in regard to
them. Working only on the threshold
of this subject, the mental peculiarities
are as various as curious, and are quite
as marked among the individuals FORM
ing the staff of newspaper, from the
editor-in-chief down to the reporter, as
any where else. Every body has aword
or two, some any quantity OF them,
that they are always uncertain about,
and the word is written by them as
often wrongly as rightly, and what is
worse, there seems to be no cure for
such mistakes.
Here is final case, with a slight
tinge of romance to it. A college-bred
man, graduate with honors, addressed
young lady, and was referred to the
young PERSONS father. Permission to
press his suit could not be made verb
ally to the father, who was absent, and
accordingly the young man wrote a
letter. Areply came promptly enough,
but not Of pleasing character. The
father, highly educated man, and
somewhat of purist, was shocked
with several bad blunders of spelling
in the letter. and he so informed his
daughter. Whether it was excitement,
or what not, could not be determined,
but the consequences to the suitor were
likely to be distressing. Subsequent
correspondence showed that the possi-
BILE son-in-law was really an educated
man, and matters were arranged. But
from an '.e'' out of place and double
st." or one too many ops" or mixing
up an .ssie'' with .'cei," the fortunes
Of two young people came near being
shipwrecked.
'.After all, spelling is mechanical
rather than mental process, say
those who make the mistakes.-M Y.
Times.