The silver lance., 1898-01-28

To invent and bring to perfectlon
the score or so of handy sounds which
Wa call an alphabet has proved to be
| the most arduous enterprise on wnlch
the human intellect has ever been en-
gagged, says the Detroit Free Press.
Its achievement tasked the genius O.
the three most gifted races OF the an
| .ient world. 1t was begun by the
Egyptians, continued by the Semites
and finally perfected by the Greeks.
| Writing began with kilograms (pic
lures representing either things O.
thoughts), which afterward developed
into phonograms (the graphic symbols
of sounds) Although our own writing
has reached the alphabetic stage yet
we still employ number Of phono-
graphic and Geographic signs. The
digits l., H., ILL.,, stood as pictures OF
fingers. The " was from the fingers
collected and the thumb apart; wv. OF
| x. represents the two hands, while ~
and VI are only pictures Of the hand,
| with the subtraction or addition Of
| finger. kilograms 5000 years old and
which we are showing no possibility OF
|
as the index, exclamation and parallel.
II the history of any one Of our al
phabetic symbols be traced back 1t will
| be found to resolve itself ultimately
into the conventionalized picture Of
some object. The letter M, for in
stance, was the picture of an owl, the
conventionalizing process Of 5000
years having left only the two peaks,
which are the lineal descendants of
the two ears Of the owl. still retaining
| between them a not inapt representa-
ton of the beak. while the vertical
strokes are all that remain Of the out
| lines of the breast The letter F is de-
rived from the horned Egyptian asp,
the two bars being the survival Of the
two horns. while the vertical stroke
represents the body. The letter Y de-
scended from the same picture, the
two horns and body being retained.
Then, too, in those days there was a
four-horned asp, which has come down
to us in the letter w, the four strokes
necessary to its making representing
the four horns, although 5000 years
seem to have been a few too many for
the body, yet that of a Kansas grass
hopper may be found supplemented by
the people 5000 years from now. The
letter A was originally the picture of
an eagle, Egypt being the eagles real
homeland. and r was taken from a
picture Of the human mouth. d was
evolved from a picture of the hand,
and SO on through the pictorial origin
of all our letters. The immediate
parentage of our English alphabet is
most difficult to determine. By a
series Of easy steps the forms Of the
very letters the reader sees before him
ON this printed page may be traced
back for some twenty-five centuries
These Roman types" as they are ap-
propriately called. have not varied ap-
preciably in their forms from the types
used at Rome and Venice by the
Italian printers of the fifteenth cen
tury. The puzzle of all English iitera-
ture is giving twenty-six letters an
arrangement by which they will pre-
sent some new impression to the mind.
The more brilliant that arrangenent
the more successful the writer. The
writer's OF the English dictionary alone
have been able to fit more than 40. 900
words constructed from thess letters
without much effort; the language is
said to contain 100000. The confusion
of English sounds and letters is we'll
illustrated by spelling coffee without
one correct letter-kauphy, which
spelling Is nearer the origioal than
the one in use. for pamphlet, was
printed in Oxford in 1859 on THE Ma
ture Of the Drink Kauphy, or Coffee. ;"
Many eccentric devices of literature de-
pend upon the peculiar arrangement
of letters. Some of these have fine
sounding names. and are recognized
as famous recreations Of the learned
The palindrome, which is a line that
reads backward and forward. Is one
II the most difficult of all fetts of let
ter juggling and has engaged the at
tention of the worlds clcvereat brains.
While in exile Napoleon was asked
by an Englishman If he thought he
could have sacked London and re-
piled: able was ere 1 saw Elba"-
the most skillful palindroDse on record
Run the letters of the rsply backward
II you would test it. A famous Latin
example is the lawyers motto: 81
Nummi immunis." TIE following SEN
tence is not only palindrome but ex-
traordinary in other respects: "Sator
arepo tenet opera ro.as.
This spells the same backward and
forward; all the first letters of the
words spell the first word, and SO on
through the second, third, fourth and
fifth. The last letters spell the last
word, the next to the last of each word
spell the next word aud SO on to the
beginning.