Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1896-07-03
A NEH DICTIONARY.

After
a year nave just bought a new Standard
Dictionary.
Few literary men can afford a large die
tionarv so early in their careers, even
though they enjoy cordial relations with
their friends who have spare rooms and
lots Of hams.
1t is not likely that Shakespeare had
respectable dictionary in his house, though
it is we'll known that in many other re-
spects ne and I are very similar Though
Shakespeare was much greater dramatist
than |: yet, like me, ne never took the
Keelev cure Shakespeare never made
much money while ne lived. Here the re-
semblance Is very pronounced. Shakes
peare wasn't well known outside of his
own township while he lived and his writ
ings were not in great demand then. Here
again it is not pleasant for me to mention
the marked similarity. But L have di-
crossed.
With this new dictionary containing all
English words, and hence all ones ideas,
fully realize that all | have to do now is
to shuttle around and get the right words
together. That's all there is to It, Wash
ington Irving became famous on both sides
of the Atlantic just by taking few thou
sand words and putting the right ones to-
gether.
Gives James Whitcomb Riley or Thomas
Bailey Aldrich a hundred words and few
duplicates and they can make a fifty dol
lar combination before Saturday night.
However, there are only a few people
who can make fifty dollars out of few
hundred words. 1 can take dictionary,
all the government reports and a whole
public library and then sometimes work
week to get a combination of words that
will pay my laundry bill, even when | wash
my own socks.
Without a complete dictionary the wrong
word often gets in the right pew. and the.
right word In the wrong one. Great writ
ers sometimes forget that even they need
dictionary. 1t is said that two of f. Ma
rion Crawford's late articles in the infal-
lible Century have no symptoms of being
written within fifty miles of good die
tionary. AS for myself. the best critics
have never noticed any errors or inaccu-
races in my writings.
Even with dictionary, it is an easy mat
ter to say pumpkins are yellow" when
'watermelons are ripe" is intended.
Bad English and poor penmanship. with
the kindly aid of the compositor. often
make an article very uncertain and likely
to turn it from light sentimental poem to
ap exhaustive article On theosophy.
l once careless.y wrote an article IN !
acknowledgements penmanship on "The |
Evolution of the Cow" and by the aid Of
the editor ard the compositor it appeared |
a very scientific article on The Milky |
Way" Think Of me as ar astronomer.
At first, with my bright new Standard. I |
am tempted 10 use very large corpulent |
words which are the idiosyncratlc concom-
itants of a new dictionary; yet l fully real
lie that big words are merely to be tasted
not gulped.
Many business complications could be
avoided by more dictionary. If you don't
believe it, ask an attorney. And if not used
to excess. where is IT not very helpful
companion?
Even in literary work, when IL is accom-
panied by good health and farm, my
friends tell me there is no reason why a
man cannot rise in his profession until he
can pay cash for all the stationery he
needs without selling a cow
Graduating season is about over in this
climate, though it is about mid-wnter va
cation in Australia. The crop this year Is
good The weather promises another good
crop of graduates next year.
The weather is no small factor in grad
uatng, just as the crop Of corn and its
price is no small factor in deciding whether
the future Presidents will be farmers Sons
or somebody's else. A nice rain just at the
right time often decides where the farm
er's son will stand in next years foot ball
or geometry or both, though these are not
often congenial.
/ always attend a few high school grad
uating exercises because of the mature tall
ent that often crops out in the graduating
productions. one often gets the literary
touch of men and women of experience, in
some way transmitted TO the mouths Of the
young graduates.
Boys and girls who have finished their
high school studies OF botany, algebra.
English. civil government and geography
often give US expositions Of science ard
philosophy that tax our comprehension and
reference books. We go away appalled,
ard feel so blamed ignorant in the pres
ence of these sixteen-year-old prodigies
that we can't look a graduate in the face
for two months.
I honestly believe that many graduates
have Geographic, telephone, postal or some
other kind Of communion with some of
their older friends from the fact that there
are often unmstakabe evidences of ten
inch projectiles beirg shot from ordinary
squirrel guns. Though the right sound is
there, the listener feels that it is coming
out of the wrong muzzle and can't help
looking alarmed. DAN FOGG.