Little Falls transcript. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1876-1894, 1886-12-03
FOR BAD SPOILERS.
Letters That Will Twist Them
sss selysa Most Unaccountably.

,4A curious paper on "Chirography.'
Or. Grace Peckham, printed in the
aaiisat Record, is suggestive Of the
81 hinsical peculiarities Of people in re-
;gard 10 spelling. 1t is likely to be in
sisted upon by those of a pedagogic |
] s1irn of mind that an educated person j,
( sunst never make a mistake in spelling.
6pr that the least blunder in the group
my together OF the letters forming q
{ word y ii convincing proof that the in
r4s.iee tts,l training Of an individual is
. tat iran being perfect. It will be
found in: daily experience that to be ab-
splutely perfect in spelling is by nc
1ne..ns to be taken as a criterion Of an
educated man or woman. There are
( the qaeerest and strangest twists in
Mstips mind, Tor there are certain words
oyer which people stumble, and they
{ will live all their lives in a hay colldi-
.', ton Ab6,st the spelling Of therI.
= s1he case presents itself to me writer
al a gentleman whose essays are con-
silerSd valuable for their thought and
excellent as,to style, who with such
simple words as ''there'' and "their''
! invariably hiunde,s when he writes
/ them. AS to the grammatical values
st these two words, it would be an in
suit tshim if he were charged with not
having the clearesr appreciation Of
them u Looking over his manuscript
the distinctive ''i'' appears now and
" taen, but only right by chance. III
three pages of his copy once the essay
ist has corrected the word, and once in
srys,angSto make ''tbere' right he has
intel'polated an ''i'' and made it all
wrong. The gentleman himself ac-
EnowIedges this strange freak, for he
u appreciate fully the difference be-
tween the two words. I think their
the possessive plural and see the H.
but can't always write it. If any one
else made the mistake in his copy
might or might not correct it. Ii it
wtxa printed, the blunder would strike
53ne at, once If could dictate I would
u. have y typewriter. have tried to
I correct these absurd 'rhtjrs' and
i. : s.theres. brit when l 90 halt over them
! and puzzle over them exactly as I did
when I was seven years old. / have
. thought Of inventing two signs for
.tl,ose cursed words. ! did try, but it
a. was Of no use, AS far as there and
their go, I shall remain All ASS all my
4 iife." ss@%,
~: In order to determine whether the
~ informant might rot be eccentric. in.
: sisting ON some mental disturbance he
! : did rot really have, the writer of this
:l.>S paper, asked the gentleman to take 8
S# 1,an and print there and their, y
" q: and then to Introduce the two words
Il G Into y sentence. This was done with
t5 VI out 4 mistake, the gentleman say ing
s III, 81 am doing it under st1css' Abou
4 sSs ten days, afserward q note was received
ssSEz from this gentleman, not long one
Y perhaps ofT'tiftcen lines, and ''thcre
II III and .tstheir,' occurring five times, were
nisspelled three times. The gentle
IN r man la,l ghed t$afterwsrd and said: g:
II Il ern now going for the rest Of my day
3:SB&to spell all the there's t-h-e-r~c, NJ
u Il matter under what circumstances, ant
!, .@ then half my chances of error will b
NJ removed. j must be right once il
.:'$ t$twice,'' he grayely concluded.
81 sa8 Here is really a curious case of an
II i ss,ther literary man, who contribute
$ $.fF4Is very: clever fiction TO the magazines
This i his absolute and truthful comics
h q sion: IL am afraid to give my ma
n i44telial to an editor who is not thorough
q '.s2 81 acquainted with me or my anteced
n II, J: e,lts, and who has not already bough
n SS 4 my stories, or who docs not know shs
555 n what I Wfi.alpeoile> like to read, for
z w am that + III plfunste creature who's
NJ apettl Ing Ii, az be asaRd Or bad, accordin
Tai eirciilnstal aces. In other words,
/, lei ng 10 that miserable category {
hum 4 4 beings who are to- be classe
sSa ne,1ig the accidental spellers~' Whs
5 Ssis Il nearby thatp'I May write lift
III aess OF \ n,a ss,script with very fe
1sS aas 81, spellin thea all of sudde
ii flsS D dfity-olfe will come blund'
III lblnndaf, Words correctly spells
3 sss 355 and used over and over again axe g
wrong nov 81 My mind Of d sudeenhal
o IN, la lie fuses 10 arrange the letters prope
little boy eight years old wou
sSy deserve tl.rsshing for such yulg
bi,indcrs. Iy.#W wife will sometim
81 ~ copy and clean it up, b
ga sSs when ( I'M, in a hurry I can net wa
for her do YOU want to listen to Il
story cf q humiliation? i took
4 s3s N tsoosa 4 had made some time ago to
81 kno#ls publisher. He knew Il
IL rel,ata ton, audi was politely L
I D subject l had chose
sss Seemed to suit him. He had I'd
e,neriit,y IT'D rsad the first page of q
vi, nuscriipt:: then he suddenly halte
81 s5s Twas At pncesaW are that he h;
III III found Ger ainlp one, maybe a h:
seil, kes in spelling, Und
f eircp instances might he
the plumbers, but If the So
n OF my life, had depend