The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1900-06-20
BILL ARP'S LETTER.
Arp New Words--Has to Consult Die
tionary for their Moaning.
Atlanta Constitution.

was big thing to spell "Bakcr
When we reached ''crucifix' We had
visions Of expansion and suspcnders
and when We progressed to unintcl-
ligibility" and "incomprchcn~jili,y'
we thought there were no more worlds
70 conquer. But there w,lc for away
on near the last laer wl- catalogue
Of jawbrcakcrS, such 4, 'lih this ic, I
which we called ti,c, and "michili.
mackinacN and bonny clabbcr, etc
We innoccnily imposed that the old
blue back ,rciling book contained all
the words in the world, but by and by
we found out that We were only in the
rllimcnts. The little dictionary aud
English Reader and Murray's Gram
mar and Smiley Arithmetic were all
ahead Of US. In course Of time, low
ever, We learned to parse, which i, a
Latin wordtaken from "quac pars ora
tionc"-what part Of speech. Then
we mastered the rule Of three, which
is now called proportion, and soon ad-
vanced to tarc and tret, which We
whispered was enough to make the
devil sweat About this time We be.
gan to wear shoes all the year round
and to brush our hair, and had picked
out sweetheart and held her hand on
the sly when we stood up to rccitc,
and sometimes VIC used the looking
glass to see how the downy beard was
coming. When we'll up in our teens
VIC were promoted to the institute aud
introduced 10 Latin and Greek and
Algebra and History remember
the first sentence in the old "IIstoria
Sacra,' Deus Crcavit coclum ct ter.
ram intra sex dicss ''-God created the
heavens and the earth in six days. 1t
was like confession Of faith and
made a morc lasting impression, for
we had to study it out and parse it. |
remember our history and how Thomps
Allan, who hadebccn poring over Alci-
blades, I'ericlcs, Thucyilcs, Sopho-
clcs and Dcmosthcncs, suddenly came
on sentence beginning with the
word "bcsides, and he called it
"bcs-i-dcs' y and thereby got nick
name that stuck to him through life.
But We old men have long since for
gotten our Latin and Greek except in
small words that make up much Of our
modern English. Even limited
knowledge Of Latin and Greek is
great advantage and great comfort in
defining our language. It is Of in
cstimable value to professional men,
to doctors and druggists, botanists
and horticulturists and those who cul-
'tivate flowers. But nobody can rcadi-
ly read Latin or Greek nowadays cx-
cept the professors and teachers in
our schools. Not long ago / pondcred
over Latin preface in a very old book
and had to give it up. turned it
over to Professor Dawes and he ren-
dered it very beautifully and no doubt
correctly, but his good wife told me as
secret that he worked on it every
night till midnight for whole week
with his coat off and the perspiration
oozing from his classic brow.
was ruminating about these things
because camc across some words to-
day that l never heard of and lad to
consult the big dictionary fol moan
dng. Of course we have to make new
words oil the time 20 keep UP with in
ventions and science, but these words
are old, as old as John Calvin, and
they seem to have created mighty
discussion in making up the Prcsby-
terian confession of faith at West
minister Abbey $50 years ago. was
lperusing an editorial in New York
paper in which it was stated that over
forty Presbyterics of the Northern
church were in favor Of amending the
confession of faith and going back to
supcrlapsarianism, which was the doc
trinc of John Calvin. That the West
minister confession was sublapsinarian
and not Calvinistic. That was rcve-
lation to me, and so I have been read
ing up on these abstruse things and
find that there was long and bitter
discussion at Westminster as to
whether God dccrccd the doctrine Of
election before the creation of man or
after he fell. Calvin declared the
former, which he called sublapsinari-
anism, but the Westminster assembly
declared that the decree of election
and reprobation was not determined
on by God until Adam had sinned and
fell. I tell you, my Christian friends,
theae two long words sre to the COM
mon mind as unintelliuihla and IN