The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1899-03-07

The delay in the final settlement Of
Dssce bstween the United States and
Eosin was largely a matter of the in,
[arpretation Of words. The Christian
religion has been split into hundreds
n seets because Of different meanings
attached to special words In the old
Rible days, on one occasion, AZ. 600
n~arsons were killed because they could
rot pronounce a certain word.
Words have had a vital part to play
In the history of the world. The pro-
Dress of civilization, the growth and
DEVELOPMENT Of mankind fnds no surer
index than in the number Of its words.
The pulse of the nation is its vocabu
rsrv. The language with the largest
vocabulary must necessarily belong to
.rbe most civilized, the most developed,
Inc most advanced, the most progres
live of all the nations. To day, that
language is,-E1glish. It Is not mere
Is the number Of words, but their IN.
diyiduaI character that counts. What
s true of the nation is equally true OF
the individual.
The sum of any mans words con-
s~itutes his life; they tell his story far
more relentlessly than he knows. Some
Of the worlds great naturalis!s have
been able, from a few bones, to re
construct" an extinct mammoth no
man living had ever seen. In some
what the same spirit, were it possible
10 have all the words any one in
dividuaI has uttered, it would be pos
aNs to ''reconstruC." his life with
rHvelous accuracy. All that would
Greuulred would be each word writ
ten on a separate slip Of paper with its
date, not the calendar year, but the
Eear Of age. There would be no clue
whatever from the Sequence Of words
Is in ordinary cDnversation, for this
@seQuanc9 would, of course, have been
des,r0Ted. We know absolutely moth
Eng ABOUT the identity Of the individual
under examination, neither sex, ma
tiOnality or PERIOD of existence; let US
pow reconstruct" him.
The first step is to arrange this voca
5ul2ric confession chronologically, un
dsr the ten parts Of speech thus bring
ing all nouns, all adj 3ctives, all ad.
TaEos, etc, in separate classes. The
neTaaC casual glance though the voca
5llsry would show by the presence oil
car-5.n words, as Telephone" mil
iona.re," etc, that the time must be
-Zad az the nineteenth century; the
pear Ct birth could readily be traced
back from some great event.
The words Centennial" "Philadel
Pai8, exhibit" # irmount," and g
ioz2n similar words constantly reiser-
aad, with other corroborative testi
nony, would fix" the year Of that
part Of the vocabulary as 1876. II
tais we're the thirty first year of the
lie Of the individual as indicated or
the slips, it is simply a matter OF sub
fratlon to discover his birth date az
b845
The sex would be easily determined
y the names Of articles of dress. The
nationality would be deduced from the
Earliest words. The death Of a parent
II the temporary or the permanent
~eparation of the child from either pa
fent would be revealed by the dropp
llg Of the name from the vocabulary
Foe brightness or dizziness of the chile
Fould De readily determined by its ust
p certain words; les early training, it
en7ryQment, it's dawning tendencies
Is clasacteristics would be revealed
Where and under what condi ion
zach year was spent would be told I'm
nls,azably.
Inc most interesting part Of thu
f'u1y would be the years Of young
Nan10od or womanhood. When tn
.c1oaI Try Of girls names oft reiter
pea .s relucRd to one, and that one
Ysgan the formal prefix Miss" sooI
lost IN a Christian name, later run
F!ng through the gamut Of lovers' pare
PufAses, It req Tires no Sherlock Holme
Tell the individuals precise c1ndi
.on. He cannot deceive the verba
thermometer.