Tombstone daily prospector. (Tombstone, Ariz.) 1887-1891, 1890-11-14
ORIGIN OF aLeHAesra

tae Litter - ID aud q survive an
Chanses--IEsersStirg Historical items.
Wber cfad cries, the lips are apart
Snd torn. at each side Of the month,
sharp angle with sides OF about equaj
length The sounds Sf the CRYING are
those assigned To tire first lciter of elInosI
.yeTs alphabet. The arrow headed 2.
wedge shaped characters in use among the
odd BabylUniIns and Persians till the time
If the great Alexander 3 ASlatic coaaue-ts
.Sere copied from the human mouth. By
means Of different CombinarJns these
wedges or \ : ssera made - represent
sunsonant rs well as vowel sounds. But
lhe entire alphabet is made up Of thcss
Neiges. Il required many generation.
probably 20 advance from a and B. Now
.uOk at aC!Iild' face, sideways yhen the
iIis are shut ai.d yoU ZEE a nsEdr,l y
tut these two letters together and W.
naye 90, which by being doubled gives
aba, the old eastern word for father.
slight modification gives am, then ANNA,
tne old eastern form Of mama or mamma
N the west, just as alba was changed
INTO papa aud pope uT holy father. The
arrow heads had served 10 record the
history, TIE literature. the religion oi
mighty empires-the old Assyrian-
Median. and Persian. They were trace
mostly on bricks Paper had moi yet bee
% much rs dreamed OF.
From. 4 and d alpha and Beta)
svmprehensive scheme Ct phOHetic char
actprs must be worked oUt before the
bsaf or rind Of papyrus can be used foa
wiring on. The hp letters II ard p.
softered into I anu Y. which last va
rocalized 2s =. are notifications merri,
Ct b we may safely say the same OF
the dental D. s0fteDed into 7. which gave
rise - S. a series q characters s;ss
gradually worked out, and the tiEle cams
when CadnuS, the man from tile East.
hrouSht an alphabet Of sixteen letteTt
rom PhUnicia into Greece. C2dmus
lnoked at as an individual man. dwindlsl
10 a myth-a shadow. lie expresses IL
legendary form the outcome e a Ions
tram Of almost forgotten fac1S. These
sixteen letters were expanded by the
Greeks to twenty-four. Light wooden
tablets covered with wax for writing on
| were adopted. But tire pen was still II
solid iron. Ike a pencil, sharp 1T one end,
with fat circular head at the other for
blotting out, when desired, what had
! been written with the point. These
/ tablets were fastened together at the
| hack by wires, go that they opened and
| shut Ike our books. For important
| documents the edges of the tables were
| pierced with h5lss through which triple
! thread was passed and then sealed. Il
/ Is TO this custom that aliusion Is made in
| the Apocalypse-.'cl close sealed with seven
4
| ten within and on the back" The an
clients used to write on the front side
only-even after they had given up
wooden tablets in favor Of papyrus and
parchment. The back was generally
stained saffron or yeiluw.
The ola Italians. too, Of prehistoric
sse got an alphabet from the east. The
letters were extended and modified uItSi
they became very different Ia forIu from
those OF Greece. But ii is remarkable
that A. 3, and o survive all changes.
They are copies Of the month when emit
ling the sounds assigned Them Modern
typography has no doubt greatly i'm
proved the rude, early scrawl, such as
nav still be seen on old gravestOnes. ThC
old PhCaniciaI and old Hebrew Aleph has
not the same position as our modern n
They are almost horizontal. with nearly
perpendicular line drawn across the angle
formed by the sides Of the letter. Iht
later Roman alphabet was spread by Ro
mau conquest. Our Anglo-SaxOn fore
fathers at length adopted it. They man
aGei to get up sort Of literature. Bui
the age of pocket dictionaries, hand!
volumes, the daily or even weekly newS
p3pers was still SUng My of. Art an
discovery have still a long apprenticeship
before we can inundate cur pOstofBce
SIth valentines or photograph iEstanta
ssoIS!y or Pape. the tai cs sonse mighty
tIxsssS---;e,ssicD SGsilJusTy RsE-sv.
A Felicitors Turn
Brown-Well, Jones have you sue
cseded in capturing Miss Smith
hand, yeti
Jones-Not exactly her hand, but
got the next thing to it
Brown-Ahf
Jones-Yes, | got the mitten--Ds