The Bryan daily eagle. (Bryan, Tex.) 1895-1898, 1898-02-11
ORIGIN OF LETTERS.
THE RESEMBLANCE BETWEEN
AN OWL AND m.
Some skIdful PaIIndFomes orthography
u Coses Years Ago wits and Wise.
ueres Of the Olden Times valued the
AnsEram Very Highly.

To invent and bring 10 perfection
the score or 20 Of handy sounds which
we call an alphabet has proved 10 De-
the most arduous enterprise on which
the human intellect has ever been en-
gagged. says the Detroit Free Press.
Us achievement tasked the genius Of
the thres most gifted races Of the an
Client world II was begun by the
Egyptians. continued by the semites
and finally perfected by the Greeks
Writing began with ldeogrnms tplc.
lures representing either things OF
ihoughtsl, which afterward developed
into phonograms tthe graphic symbols
Of sounds) Although our own writing
has reached the alphaboilc stage yet
we still employ a number Of phono-
graphic and Geographic signs The
digits l.. a.. H.. stood as pictures of
Singers. The " was from the fingers
collected and the thumb apart. w. or
X. represents the two hands. while ~.
and VI are only pictures o. the hand.
with the subtraction or addition OF o
finger. kilograms 5000 years old and
which we are showing no possibility OF
Improving on. are such printers signs
o. the index, exclamation and parallel.
II the history OF any one OF our 90.
phabeiic symbols be traced back Il viii
be found 10 resolve Itself ultimately
into the conyentionaliIed picture %
some object The letter ~ fnr To-
stance, was the picture OF an owl. che
conventionalizing process OF 5000
years having left only the two peaks.
which are the llnoal descendants of
the two ears Of the owl. still retaining
between them a not lnapt representa-
ton Of the beak. while the vertical
strokes are all that remain OF the out-
lines OF the breast. The letter p o. Do.
rived from the horned Egyptian asp.
the two bars being the survival OF Inc
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
10 us IN the letter W. the four strokes
necessary 20 its making representing
the four horns. although 5000 years
seem 10 have been a few too many for
the body. yet that OF a Kansas gross
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 Il was taken from n
picture OF tho human mouth. d was
evolved from a picture OF the hand.
and 20 on through the pictorial origin
Of all our letters. The immediate
parentags OF our English alphabet Is
most diiicult 10 determine. By a
series Of easy steps the forms % the
very letters the reader sees before him
on this printed page may be traced
back Tor some twenty-five centuries
These Roman types. as they are ap-
proprlately called. have not varied ap.
preciably In their forms from the type,
used AZ Rome and Venice hy thg
Italian printers OF the fifteenth cen.
tury. The puzzle % an English lltera-
ture is giving tweniy-siK letters on
arrangement by NSich they Wlll pre-
sent some new impression 10 the mind
The more brilliant that arrangement
the more successful the writer The
writers OF the English dictionary aion,
have been able 10 a. more than 10000
words constructed from these letter.
without much effort. the language d
said 10 contain 100000. The confusion
OF EHglish sounds and letters o. well
illustrated by spelling coffee without
one correct letter kauphy. which
spelling u nearer the original than
the one 10 use. Tor a 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 One
sounding names. and are recognized
A. famous recreatlons OF the learned
The palindrome, which ls line that
reads backward and forward. h ons
Of the most dlflcult OF an feais Of let.
ter iuggling and has engaged the az.
tentlon Of the worlds cieverest brains
While In exile Napoleon was asked
by an Englishman " he thought b,
could have sacked London and re
piled able was ere I saw Elba~-
the most sklllful pallndrome on record
Run the letters Of the reply backward
/ n you would test q. A famous Iatir
example IL the lawyers motto. s
Numml immunls" The following sen
tence is not only pallndrome but ey
traordluary In other respects: "Saiol
arepo tenet opera rotas"
THIS spells the same backward AM
forward an the first letters OF thl
words spell the FIRST word. and 80 ~
through the second. third. fourth an,
afth The last letters spell the las
word. the next 10 the last Of each wor,
spell the next word aud 80 on 20 th0
beginning