The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1896-01-07
HOW TO Puh,C rUATE.
Proposed Revolution in he ssystsn ~
Writing aud Pr mt ing.

RI0p08o0 hcvO1uIOa IN ~,
Writing aud Pr mt ing.
The iconoclast's task is far from de-
sirable Age and custom re large ele-
ments in reverence v 'ei leration is
close akin to religion vii IN most folk
And yet all progress is a sy 3 tenn OF rev
olution, though not all re " button Is
necessarily progressive TIL "a e may be
nothing new under the sun" ut there
ought to be And one OF L Re new
things should be reformation OF our
system of punctuation To begin,
there's right or wrong way to do
most things, and frequently tha 'e's a
better way This is quite apparel IT In
our method of pointings ?Who has not
been seriously puzzled in his readh igs
to know, as he proceeded with 81 n
tence, whether it was destined to term l.
nate deliberately, interrogatively or eA :
clamatively And very frequently thu
portion perused must be gone over in
whole or in part to catch the authors
meaning, when, had the sentences
"sign manual" been in it's proper place,
the confusion would have been avoided
Terminal pupctuation points were in
tended to be indexical We have SIM
ply put the cart before the horse, and |
with strange persistency refuse to re- |
verse the process Perhaps punctua-
ltion point. like a good mule, ought to
work both ways, but it is in evidence
that it doesn't in its present position
l"Sign reading" is the demand of these |
busy days, and every effort to facilitate
lit should be gladly received Time is
money, and money is the zest OF life |
For it stands for the best of most of
the real successes.
?Now, why should we persist longer
in this very awkward fashion Seems
as If our grammarians and rhetoricians
should escape Us from this thralldom !
We have discarded the eld-fsshioned |
way OF saving our letters" and we no
longer teach the ohild to spell "a,g-
g-r-a-n-d-i-z-e-m-e-n-t. and then run
the word through its guessing machine
for its own names sake We rather
begin with the so-called final" syllable,
and proceed to the first, and when it is
reached the word is pronounced, and
properly, too This system has super
seeded the ancient A-B-C method, and to-
day seven-year-old child oan give
pointers to the ten-year-old under the
old regime What is urged here as the
same improved methods in punctu alton
which have wrought such beneficial eff
ifects in other lines The best. and o ply |
the best, is good enough for Us
The science and art of punctuation,
If such they may be called. originated
with the Masorites during the reign tf
Tiberias The anoients had smalt
care for this sort of work For them i'll
was sufficient to create, others might
seek for the sense AS is well known. \
the Hebrew Bible is written from right
to left. and Genesis is found next the
back lid After the invention Of print
ing the markings came into gradual
use The early publications contain
only occasional or arbitrary markings
The present system of divisions, subdi-
visions and endings is an outgrowth Of
that practiced by the Venetian
Manntm
The day dawn of the goth century
shall not have broken upon this earth
before some POLAND or Fundenburg
shall have delivered US from this foolish
fashion which binds us in chains and
letters The press of the country, In
this as in other good things, should
lead the way In most progressive
schools the newspaper has taken the
place of the readers, and rightly so
The South Carolina constitutional
amendments would have been more
modern and American had they re-
quired ability to read and interpret
present day questions as published in
our great dailies And the ability to do
this would indicate no mean order of
and bespeak a bedrock of
good citizenship ?If this is the de-
sideratum which we believe it to be, and
If it is a step toward simplifying the
acquisition of knowledge, why should
Pittsburgh not lead off in the market
Common sense seems TO be on our side
of the question - Pittsburgh Dis
patch