Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1897-08-21

"oio Piouuce quite engaging music out OF
TINS same singing geography and multipli-
catlon table. And these lessons they never
forgot Poetry or rhyme is much more
quickly learned and easier remembered
than prose by reason of the greater compact
ness and cohesiveness of the fact or senti-
ment expressed. How many an adult can
not Tor the life of him tell the number of
days IN particular month until he has
repeated, soto voce. that practically vaIu-
able nursery rhyme:
Thirty days has September,
April June and November" etc.
In other rhyming lessons an occasional
bit OF charming sentiment is introduced-a
little sugar coating as it were, to make
the dose more palatable to the youthful
patient, as evidenced by the following
metamorphosed time measure:'
Sixty seconds make a minute,
Sixty minutes make an hour;
l wish l were a little 1innet
Singing in her leafy bower;
Ana then would not have to learn
Sixty minutes make an hour.
Twenty-four hours in day.
Seven days in a week:
Ia rather roll among the hay,
OF play at charming hide and seek,
Than tell the hours that make a day,
Or count the days that make week.
Warren's should be included in the list
of comparatively old geograp plies and Cor
| nelfs and Guyot's These books, with the
| last of those previously named, are most
admirable text books, gotten up in the
highest style of the printers art; many
editions of them have been published and
| their sales were prodgous for more than a
quarter of a century; they We're deserved
~ popular, and some Of them yet to
be found in the country schools.
The first American speller was Webster
Elementary Spelling Book" which first ap-
peared in 1855. AS the writer remembers it.
the book was very thin and very blue-it
vas combination speiler and reader and
Illustrated. Who that has studied it can
ever forget the picture and story of the old
| man trying to dislodge a bad boy from one
OF his apple trees by rocking him with
grass at which the young saucebox laughed
Elm to Seorn; hut getting tired of that, he
finally pelted him roundly with the genuine
| article, and with such success, the veracious
author ASSURES JUS. that 1.-The young rogue
came down and begged the old mans par
dom Got off easy! we boys used to think
Old-Tin,e Spoilers.
| But aside from these stories, 1t is true that
more persons have learned to spell correct
| ly from Websters azure cid spelling book
than from any subsequent volume. To do
| all the sums in Pixies or Dabolls A,ith-
metic, and spell Webster from "eend to
eend' required an iron constitution and
cast steel memory, and they had both in
| those days.
Webster had an eye to the fitness of
| things, too in the compilation of this book,
| for he considerably grouped all the words
| of irregular and tortuous photography and
| corralled them in the back part of the
| book, and raised the danger flag over
| them as in the case Of an infected house
| and labeled them Words Difficult to
SPELL as in truth they are. for amongst
| the lot are such tidbits. as queue, gherkin,
ennuf, cart blanche, cacutchouc, effer-
vesce. debris. scrutoire. deseccated, fricas-
see, debauchee, and hundred or more
| others equally fragrant.
This. old spelling book had an unprece-
denied run, more than million copies be-
| ing sold annually for nearly thirty years.
| No other book in the world, except the BIZ
| bic, attained such a circulation. Its au-
| thor, of course. was Noah Webster, who
| subsequently published the dictionary bear
| ing his name. Webster died in 1913, at the
| advanced age of eighty-five, full of years
and money from the royalties on his SPELL
| ing book and dictionary.
Other popular old-time spoilers were
| Cobb's QS2D, Goodrich's Peter Farley Spell
| ers and Towle's; subsequent spelling books
were issued in connection with a series OF
readers. as Sanders and McGuffey's Spell
ers.
| Spelling was taught orally in those days,
| the school being divided into first, second.
| third and fourth classes. At recitation the
er's desk and fright Dress" then the boys
would bow" and the girls courtesy
| which the teacher acknowledged by pro-
found and measured ''salaam." and then
u
son; each pupil was entitled to two trials
at word d:sjofnting them into syllables,
as in-com-pre-hen-si-bil -i-ty, If necessary.
and IL then missed it was given to the
| ly, the winner going above the one or
more who had missed it. Whittier has
mmortalized this old practice in his de-
licious ballad entitled I'm School DAYS -
| in which he portrays the grief and peni-
tence of a juvenile love-sick lass for ..eo-
ing above" her favorite laddie. Hear her
the little goose:
'Im sorry that I spelt the word
I hate to go above you;
Because"-the brown eyes lower fell
| Because, you see, 1--we you.'
This Is very pretty conoeit. but does
not correctly reflect the truth of history as
| the writer recollects it. The girls he re-
members, were not built that way-they
would ''go above YOU too quick, and with
no perceptIble remorse that he was ever
able to discover. 1t was considered some
| thing of humiliation In those days for us
| boys to be turned down by the girls, but
| they kept right on going above us just the
same, and in otherJways and places, too,
| than in the spelling class and TODAY we
are quite willing to admit their Intellectual
equality. i1
At Spelling School.
A prize at the close of the term to the
pupil who left off, head the most times
was one Of the incentiy es to study the
| spelling lesson. A popular adjunct of the
| day school in connection with spelling (to
the larger scholarD were the spelling
! schools" or. more properly, the sparkling
| schocls''-for there's! were more matches
made at these same spelling schools.
| though not always contaminated. than ever
were made In heaven The boys who
''chose Sides Tor these intellectual battles
were lads wh6 had ar eye to the main
| chance. ard they would invariably choose
| their best girl first, whether she was, or
| was not. the best speller: the second choice
would be the supposed best speller. the
| third his favorite girl, and SO on untfI all
| were chose n and mated. The teacher ur-
| less he was a confirmed hypochondrfac
| would come down loft his high horse on
these festive occasions and would actually
| talk to his pupils about sublunary affairs.
! and possibly he would even SMILE After
| two hours of spelling and some delicious
| whisperings came the spelling down. pro-
cess. open to all corners. when usually some
pete Cones" with a me ory so abnormal
| that It had absorbed all his other faculties
usually carried OF the prize.
Reverting again to readers, the writer
came in when Old :McGuffey held the
| boards. going through the entire series
| from the "F1rst"-to tho sixth" Sanders.
( Ifllard Wilson and Towns readers orS